Nitojutsu: Story of Two Swords
by Flamemajic
Summary: Captured and separated from their crews, Zoro and Tashigi must rely on each other to survive and escape. But whether they can survive each other is a whole different problem... ZxT
1. Captured! The Heroes Meet

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda-sensei does. I'm borrowing two of his characters, and allowing walk-ons of the others, for my own personal amusement. I'm also not getting paid for writing this, since I don't think I can find anyone stupid enough to do so.

A/N: A multi-chapter fic involving Zoro and Tashigi… with a PLOT! It's quite possibly a first in the realm of fanfiction. And this is my first real fanfiction, so take it easy on me, will you? Thanks to angelicyokai, who serves as a sounding board for all my plot bunnies and ridiculous whining. It's amazing how motivating someone yelling 'write something!' as they run out the door can be. Not that I get anything done before 2 am anyway.

**One Piece: Nitojutsu – Story of Two Swords**

**Chapter One: **

Zoro slouched against the stone wall behind him. His current situation was not only frustrating, it was annoying. First of all, he couldn't seem to escape from this prison, which was a first for him. The fact that he had been captured rather easily, not even having a chance to slaughter a few dozen mooks, also grated on his consciousness. Needless to say, this episode was definitely not going on his résumé.

It didn't help that his hands and feet were currently contained in steel shackles, which even his hardened muscles were incapable of breaking. If he had one of his swords perhaps, but not with sheer brute strength. And there was a further cause for irritation: these people who had captured him had his swords somewhere. The very idea of such people doing as they wished with his most prized possessions was enough to make him twitch in anger.

And the best part about this was the person across the way. She was still glaring at him, just as she had been since she woke up a few hours ago. He had noticed her as soon as he was brought in, but she had been unconscious at the time so he hadn't been able to get a good look at her. Then she woke up, sat up and noticed him immediately. He noticed her too, as well as having his dark suspicions about her identity suddenly, terribly confirmed. No words had as yet been exchanged, but her rage was palpable even across the approximately fifteen foot span between them.

Sergeant Major Tashigi of the Marines was in the same straits as him, and neither one was thrilled to be sharing their imprisonment with the other.

All other things could be abided, but not this. Zoro felt an ache beginning to form behind his eyes once again just from contemplating the issue. He also felt that he might have a little bit of a hangover from whatever they'd used to knock him out while capturing him. Resolutely, he closed his eyes and tried to tune out his surroundings – most especially his company – so that he could think of a good plan for fighting his way out of here.

The biggest problem was that he wasn't sure where he was. This wasn't abnormal for him, but in this case he found himself really and truly clueless about his own whereabouts. He was on dry land, that much was certain, and he was apparently underground as well. There had been an island not far from the ship's location when they had been attacked, so it was likely that that was where he had been hauled off to. That was somewhat convenient, because it meant plenty of escape routes that didn't lead directly to taking a long, long swim.

He heard a soft shuffling sound across the way, indicating that the young female Marine was on the move. The shackles that both wore weren't tight enough to prevent such things, but they did make things like walking difficult. He hadn't felt the need to get up and about just yet. There was no way of really telling whether they were being watched, and just in case they were he'd like to keep the enemy guessing about as much as possible for as long as possible.

He opened one eye just a crack to check out what exactly Tashigi was up to. As it turned out, she was looking over the bars and lock of the cell that currently imprisoned her. It didn't look like she was coming up with any amazing weak points in the design either. He continued watching until she glanced his way, and then pretending to be zoned out was the order of the day. She returned to the back wall of her cell, sat down and continued glaring at him.

She could probably use a hobby, he decided. Something like yoga or Dragon Kung Fu, so that she could work off some of the waves of frustration that she was assaulting him with. Apparently sword fighting just wasn't cutting it for stress relief.

"You…"

She spoke! Zoro twitched, losing his 'I'm not paying attention' guise instantly. Too late to go back, he opened his eyes and glowered at her. "What? You'd better not be trying to blame this on me."

"Blame you?" She blinked in confusion. "That would be stupid. You're in the same predicament as I am."

Zoro bristled. Stupid, huh? "Then what do you want?"

"Well… I don't really know." She admitted, causing Zoro to almost fall over in disbelief.

Pulling himself back upright, he pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand, trying to ward off the growing ache behind his eyes. "You don't know? You sounded like you wanted to rip my spleen out and feed it to me a moment ago!"

She crossed her arms over her chest, blushing slightly. "Well, you're an annoying person. It was reflex."

Zoro grunted inarticulately, expressing his aggravation at such a statement. He'd heard that before too, irritatingly enough. Why was it that women felt they could get away with making inexplicable actions and declarations?

"Where are we?" She spoke up again after a moment. "And where are the rest of our crews?"

"Dunno." Zoro leaned backwards, trying to find a comfortable position against the cold stone wall.

"Aren't you concerned? Don't you care about your crewmates?" Zoro shifted slightly as she continued, "I guess not. But that's what I should expect from a pirate, since you're all disloyal, violent savages anyway…"

"Stupid woman! It's not like that at all, and if you'd stop jumping to conclusions you might actually learn a thing or two." Zoro snarled back, "And I'm not concerned because I know they can handle themselves!"

"Why you…" It was fortunate that she didn't have a sword right then, or she would have had it at his throat in an instant. Hell, he wouldn't put it past her to just throw it at him and hope for impalement. Zoro found himself checking the surroundings, abruptly, for objects of throwable size. He might need to be ready to dodge.

----------------------------------

Noticing the opening of the door wasn't difficult, especially since the 'conversation' had died off a while ago and both prisoners were currently ignoring each others' presence. The door was notable because there wasn't much else to stare at in this place, and the thing's hinges creaked like nobody's business. They probably kept it that way just for effect. Zoro gave up his pretense of unawareness and sat up a bit straighter as their captors came into view.

"Ah, here we are. Swordsmen, two. Captured today in restricted waters off the coast…" One man was reading out of a well worn booklet while another followed, trying not to look bored and failing.

"Restricted waters?" Tashigi spoke up, immediately drawing their attention. "The World Government doesn't have any record of such a thing in this area."

"It is a new regulation, handed down from the Council earlier this month. All ships that pass between Thyall Atoll and our island must announce their presence beforehand, acquire permission to pass and pay a toll." The man with the book explained with an air of forced patience.

Tashigi's brow wrinkled slightly and she cocked her head to one side as she processed this information. "Even if your Council decided something like this, it's unlikely that it has passed through the correct channels to be approved by the World Government in such as short time…"

"The World Government! Hah! As if we bow to the whims of such a corrupt and incompetent organization!" The bored man now spoke up, swaggering forward to glare down at the young Marine, temporarily ignoring Zoro. "People like you just handing dictates down from on high, and expect all of us 'citizens' to obey!"

Tashigi looked a little stunned by the kind of small brained stupidity and lack of coherent thought being thrown at her, not to mention hypocrisy, so Zoro stepped in. "So in other words, you made these 'restricted waters' up yourself, and are taking advantage of everyone who doesn't have a clue about it."

"I see, so that's what it was…" Tashigi murmured to herself while the man rounded on Zoro.

"And you, I have a wanted poster for you. Not only do you break our laws, but you are a world-renowned criminal to boot! Waltzing in here as if we wouldn't take a stand against you!"

"It wasn't my idea to come here. You brought me." Zoro stated the obvious with a 'what were you thinking?' glare.

"You were in restricted waters!" The man reiterated, as if that gave the statement some sort of validity, "We had the right to take you prisoner. You're lucky that we decided to use non-lethal means to do so."

Zoro rather doubted this was the case. If they'd tried to simply exterminate him and the rest of the crew, he didn't think they'd have managed so well. Either way, he could see that it was pointless to argue. "So, where is everyone else from my ship? You have them too, right?"

"N-naturally! All of them have been captured – from your ship as well –" He took a moment to point at Tashigi, who was watching with interest, "And are being held elsewhere. No one will come to rescue you, if that was what you were hoping."

Judging from that stutter, at least as one of his crewmates had evaded capture. Now Zoro felt even stupider, perhaps being the only one to get caught. Maybe that midday nap habit of his needed some revising.

Well, that could be dealt with later. Right now, the most important things to determine were what was going to be done with them next, and what the best chance to escape would be.

"Now, aside from violating restricted waters and being either a wanted pirate or a flunky of the corrupt World Government – "

Tashigi interrupted with an indignant, "Hey!" at this point, but was ignored. Zoro didn't bother trying to deny the obvious on his part.

The man continued, "- Both of you have been found guilty, via the direct method of witnesses to the lawbreaking, of carrying weapons within our country's borders."

"Wait, carrying weapons is against the law?" That really didn't sound like a good idea to Zoro, and Tashigi didn't look too impressed either. "How does that work? Aren't you attacked by every pirate ship that comes by or whatever?"

"This law was enacted two months ago by the Council. We have had no serious problems since then, which proves that this law is in the best interests of a peaceful and unified society." They were duly informed of this fact in all seriousness.

The prisoners exchanged a glance. "How do you figure?" Zoro couldn't quite find the reason or the proof.

And they were completely ignored. The man continued on, apparently tired of discussing how incredibly wonderful and logical his nation's government was. "Your punishment will be the standard for such a crime."

"Which is?"

"Relocation to the Arena, where you will fight for your very lives to atone for your crimes."

"Sounds fun." Zoro drawled, "When do we leave?"

----------------------

End Ch. 1

Next Time – Entering the Arena – Fight for your freedom guys! And stop fighting each other, will you?


	2. Entering the Arena! Honor & Lack of It

A/N: Um. Hi. I don't really have anything to say, so just read the fic. Yeah. I don't know why I put this up here at all.

**Chapter Two: **

The Arena, as it turned out, was in fact where the citizens of this particular moronic nation got their kicks by capturing people in the act of violating some ban or another and pitting them against each other in battle. There were Gladiatorial Deathmatches galore.

In the last two months, the Arena had been the home exclusively to various kinds of weapons wielders, which explained why Zoro and Tashigi were singled out from their crews for this purpose. They were the only two people on each of their respective vessels who were in the habit of continually carrying weaponry, since apparently things like slingshots didn't count.

Really, it was rather cliché, but Zoro could understand that citizens who weren't even allowed to possess weapons probably had a lot of anger issues that needed venting in some ways or means. Not that beating on people with your fists couldn't alleviate some such feelings, but some people just aren't predisposed to that sort of pastime. Vicarious violence has a much wider range of appeal anyway.

This wasn't to say that he was calmly accepting of his fate. Fighting people was pretty much his job, his hobby and his purpose in life, but that didn't mean he wanted to beat the crap out of whatever poor schmuck they decided to throw at him while people sat around taking bets. There was no challenge in it, and it was just plain insulting.

The basics of Arena fighting were easy enough to pick up. Not only were they exactly what one could expect, but the guards assigned to escort the pair to the small offshore island where the Arena was situated were more than happy to share. They also seemed to think that the idea of such daily life or death battles should be some cause for concern.

The only thing that Zoro was actually worried about was how long it would take him to escape. If he took too long and the rest of the crew had to come and rescue his sorry ass, he'd never live it down. He could imagine it now: Sanji's leering face, the exorbitant 'rescue fee' that Nami would levee against him, the well meaning but incredibly annoying concern from other crewmates… and there was no guarantee that Luffy wouldn't do something really stupid that involved launching Zoro to the next island along in the Grand Line.

It would really be best if he could figure a way out of this situation by himself, in other words.

The Arena itself was an imposing structure, most likely a guard outpost that had been converted to this purpose when the Council started punishing people this way. It was essentially a large stone fortress, completely filling the space available on the small rocky island it inhabited. They had been brought over by boat, with quite a few guards present as well.

Once they disembarked in a low cavern carved out of a sheer cliff, Zoro felt his hopes for a quick and easy escape fading. This place was well designed, with this apparently being the only way in or out. It was open enough to have no reasonable skulking places, while enclosed enough to be easily guarded. The only way to escape through this docking area would be to fight your way through… or a disguise, but those never seemed to work out as well as planned.

He didn't have too much time to contemplate it, because they were pulled straight through the area with no pause, extra chains having been attached to the shackles on their hands for this purpose.

The restraint still irked Zoro, but even if he ripped the chain out of the guard's hands and used it to beat him to a pulp, that wouldn't get all of the shackles off of him. There was also the problem that Tashigi was chained to him as well, and she probably wouldn't appreciate being swung around if he started a fight. Rather than face her wrath, he kept his peace.

Their trip ended in a dungeon. There was no other word that described it so well, so a dungeon it was. There were weighty iron doors separating each area, cold, slightly damp stonework for every other available surface, and some inescapable looking prisoner cells.

It was into one of these cells, a large one, that they were finally deposited. The cell was already occupied, surprisingly enough, by about a dozen other rough looking types.

"The rest of the law breakers, I guess." Zoro muttered to himself, massaging his wrists. The shackles had finally been removed to allow free movement, but the guards had disappeared out through the door too quickly for him to take advantage of the situation. Obviously they were used to working with people like him, and knew the risks of hanging around where he could get his hands on them.

As for their new roommates… none had yet moved, but all of them were openly staring at the two new residents of Dungeon Paradise. More to the point, most were focusing on Tashigi. Zoro came to the abrupt and unpleasant realization that she was the only female present in the whole room. Or at least the only one recognizable as definitely female, though there was one person who was questionable.

Zoro felt one eyebrow twitch as he returned the stares, and he became aware of some murmuring in the background. A bunch of the men were now in a huddle, and he could see glances being snuck in Tashigi's direction on a regular basis. Tashigi herself had moved away from the machismo filling the air around Zoro and was inspecting their surroundings. Maybe jail cell construction evaluation was her hobby? It honestly wouldn't surprise him.

At any rate, she had apparently dismissed the other prisoners as 'non-threatening' after her first glance. Zoro considered convincing her to put her glasses back on and take another look, but decided she probably needed that kind of confidence in a situation like this.

Her confidence was all well and good, as previously stated, but certain things needed reinforcing anyway. Just to avoid misunderstandings in the future that would probably end up being Zoro's fault, or at least on his conscience.

Making sure that Tashigi was ignoring him – and she was, quite expertly – he moved forward. The gang of whispering guys peered up at him. Zoro dropped down into a crouch in front of them, a smirk on his face. "Yo!"

"Hey, new man." One replied, marking himself immediately as the leader of the little gang. "You came in with some hot stuff."

Zoro glanced over his shoulder at Tashigi. They probably thought he was checking out this 'hot stuff' once again for himself, but he really wanted to make sure she wasn't looking his way while he did this. "Yeah, well... I gotta say, you probably don't wanna mess with her."

"Oh, and why's that?"

"Well, she's pretty good at lecturing people, so you'd probably want to kill yourself after a few minutes anyway, but the main reason is this." Zoro's fist found its way into the man's stomach.

Zoro was by profession and training a swordsman, but he was quite capable of punching people when he felt like it. And he punched hard, as this poor pervert was finding out. The man was thrown backwards by the impact, nailing two of his buddies who had been behind him before the pile slammed into the wall with a nice, loud 'thud'.

"So, you get it?" Zoro grinned at them, bearing uncanny resemblance to a shark as he did so. He got eager nods all around, and his position as 'guy not to mess with' was firmly and immediately established.

His smugness was short lived. Tashigi, oblivious to the exchange of words or the rest of the preceding situation, had been alerted by the sounds of the men hitting the wall and their pained groans afterward. And she was closing in.

"What are you doing?! We've been here for less than five minutes and you're starting a brawl!"

Ever the conversationalist, Zoro rolled his eyes, rose to his feet and grunted in reply. Turning and walking away, he spotted a corner that he liked. It quickly became unoccupied as he approached, so he was able to find a seat with little trouble. Tashigi had been left behind by his departure, but after a quick glance around she ended up following him over anyway.

He raised one eyebrow as she sat down about five feet away from him. This was actually better than her sitting across the room, as it made it easier to glare at the few brave or stupid souls who never seemed to get he message, but he still wasn't expecting her to seek out his company.

Maybe she wasn't as unaware of the kinds of people she had just been thrown in with as he had thought. She was a Marine after all, so dealing with scummy types was definitely in her job description… and that gave him another moment of pause. They probably shouldn't let it out that she was a Marine officer as well, since there was little love for those in the underbelly of society.

And it appeared that all of the people in the cell were very recent acquisitions, which only lowered Zoro's opinion of them based on their behavior. It was just obvious that they didn't get any on the outside and were jumping at the chance to alleviate the lack in such a situation. Such shallow and worthless people were not worthy of breathing his air. He resolved to do something about that at first chance, perhaps within the fighting ring.

"Honestly, you're really just uncontrollably violent, aren't you?" Tashigi wrapped her arms around herself and pressed back against the stone. "I bet you were just waiting for someone to beat on, weren't you?"

"Be quiet. It's not like I go around starting fights like that for fun." He caught her disbelieving stare. "Not often, anyway." He amended.

"So you're impulsive and shallow too."

He gave out a sound remarkably like a growl. "Idiot female! I shouldn't have bothered! That's the last time I defend your honor…"

"Defend my honor?" She took a moment to peer around at the other captives. "You can't be serious. None of these people are professional combatants, and I'm sure I could take out any one of them in a fight. I _do_ know how to fight hand to hand, you know."

"I don't think it's a fight they want." Ha answered shortly, feeling himself blush at his own insinuation. Why was he getting embarrassed over something like this?

"Oh. You mean _that_."

"Yeah. _That._" His blush deepened a bit more.

"Hmmm." This time, she _glared_ at the other prisoners. There were suddenly a lot of dropped eyes and redirected gazes. "I still think I could take them if they tried anything."

"I'll leave that up to you then. No stepping in from me. I'll just enjoy the show."

"Hmph! And I bet you would, you sick pervert."

The List of Zoro's Faults and Personality Defects was getting longer every time he opened his mouth. It was quite irritating actually, almost as annoying as the fact that he was still flushing rather badly. He was torn between removing any further material for her to throw at him by not talking to her anymore and snapping back with his own retort, but he never got the chance to come to a decision.

Footsteps sounded outside the cell, and a group of five men appeared by the door. The one in the center, obviously the leader, was short, squat and heavily muscled. As a matter of fact, he had biceps the size of his own head, which was rather disconcerting. Zoro himself was rather muscular, but he had his own form of vanity that required that he at least keep himself somewhat proportionate. His company, two men in guard's uniforms to either side, was taller but just as powerful looking. They were obviously well suited for their chosen profession.

"Alright scum." The short man spoke, addressing the company at large as everyone got to their feet and turned to face him. "You're now the property of Mr. Rokku, the owner of this Arena. I'm gonna explain the rules to ya, so listen up. I don't repeat myself, and any misunderstandings might lead to some painful consequences around here."

He stared around to make sure he had everyone's attention before continuing. "Your ranking here is determined by the number of fights you win or lose. We have several different 'ranks' of fighters here, and you'll be starting at the bottom.

"After ten wins, your status will be reevaluated. If the Council decides you're worthy, you'll be allowed to move up to the next rank. A total of five levels exist. Once ya reach the fifth rank and acquire twenty wins, you'll be recommended for parole."

"Parole?" Tashigi lifted one hand to push her glasses back up her nose, now that she had finally put them back on. "There's a system for conditional release?"

"Yep. If you're determined to be parole worthy, you'll be offered a supervised position in the ranks of our country's peacekeepers and guardsmen. A noble usage of your fighting skills, and an excellent future career."

Zoro snorted, a sound echoed by several other prisoners. Maybe that was how this particular guy had gotten his job? One of the other skeptics then called out, "Yeah sure. And what if we're not interested in working for you?"

"Then you'll not be considered, obviously." The heavyset man's voice was cool as he as he answered, clearly expecting such a question. "You'll remain in the ranks of the Arena's fighters until you're killed by an opponent, or something else unfortunate happens."

Someone else called out, "So killing's allowed, then?" Several prisoners, including Zoro, narrowed their eyes meaningfully and glanced around at their competition. Tashigi just looked rather put out by the concept.

"Naturally." He bowed his head slightly in confirmation, "Any means of defeating an opponent is permitted. You'll also be allowed weapons in the fighting ring, but don't think that'll allow an escape."

The man stopped to gesture to one of his companions. The other reached into the pocket of his heavy coat and removed a thin piece of metal. "You'll each be fitted out with one of these. These collars have runes on 'em that drain _ki_, especially fighting _ki_. In the ring itself, we've got wards up that'll disable these, but as soon as ya leave that area they'll reactivate and you'll be powered down."

A round of muttering started up among the inmates, but Zoro was the one who gave voice to the general sentiment. "Wait a minute, you can't be serious. Runes that drain _ki? _That's stupid."

The man turned his eyes onto the green haired swordsman. "Ya think so? Here in this world we have demon fruits that give people magic powers and a sea where ya have to use Log Posts to navigate and ya can't predict the weather for the next five minutes. We've got fish men and sea monsters. Hell, we've got cursed weapons and ghosts too! Ya think _ki_ draining runes can't exist?"

"You know, that's really not that out there, I guess." Zoro admitted after a moment of contemplation. "Now that you mention it, I wouldn't be surprised if there were birds that could knit as well."

"I think I've heard of those. Of course the guy who was telling me about it was pretty drunk at the time…" Tashigi muttered quietly.

"You hang out with drunk people a lot?" Zoro murmured as he cast a glance at her out of the corner of his eye.

It was her turn to blush and sputter, but she also didn't get a chance to reply. The score was now even, one point each.

"So, now ya know the rules." The man clapped his hands together abruptly, recalling their attention once again. "So, let's get started with the fights! The crowd's a'waitin', and we don't wanna disappoint. For ya bottom ranks we don't bother with any sort of real organization for your first fight, so whoever got here first and whoever was last, you're up for round one!"

"First? That's me." A tall, wiry man with a rather unattractive scar along one cheek stepped towards the door.

"Last then?" The man stared expectantly at the rest of the gathering, who all turned to look at Zoro and Tashigi.

"We both came in at the same time." Zoro eyeballed the opponent. "But I don't mind taking him."

"No, I'll do it." Tashigi stepped forward resolutely.

"Hey!" Zoro was left in the dust as the towering scarred man sniggered to himself.

"Heh heh. I get a woman first round. Easy win for me!"

Zoro took one long step backwards as Tashigi immediately fluffed up in righteous rage. "You really shouldn't'a said that, man."

"Oh yeah, why's that?" He sneered at Zoro while Tashigi continued forward.

"You're dismissing me because I'm a woman?" Zoro had a moment of painful déjà vu as the female swordsman began her rant. "You think just because I'm female that I'll be a pushover in the fighting ring? How arrogant and small minded!"

"Wha --?" The man was caught off guard by her wrath and actually took a step backwards. There were quite a few wide eyes among the spectators as well. Zoro just covered his eyes with one hand and shook his head, glad to not be the target of such a tirade for once.

"I assure you, fighting me will be far from an easy win! If for nothing else than that I can't stand people like you, who look down on women!"

"Oi! Settle it in the ring, you two! We've got a schedule to keep here!" The jailer snapped, breaking Tashigi's momentum.

The two first round fighters were then allowed out of the cell, one at a time, and the anti-_ki_ collars fitted around their necks. The arm and leg shackles were also reintroduced to prevent any sort of shenanigans or escape attempts. Zoro watched all this, continued watching as they were led away, and then returned to his corner to wait once they were out of sight. "A short fight, probably." He muttered, followed quickly by a wide yawn.

He leaned back, closed his eyes and to all appearances abruptly went to sleep. The rest of the prisoners stared for a moment, and then went about their business. It probably wasn't worth the effort to bother someone like that, after all. Besides, he was a kind of scary guy, and his female companion was even more frightening in her own way.

---------------------------------

Tashigi and her opponent were led through a few stone passages together until she became aware of a distant rumbling sound. Most likely it was due to a large crowd overhead, waiting for bloodshed and violence. At this point the hallway ended in a T intersection and each prisoner was taken in a different direction, with two guards following each to keep an eye on them. The main jailer, who had never bothered to give his name, had disappeared quickly. He was no doubt off performing his own duties in preparing for the impending fight.

The sounds of the crowd were becoming louder, but no more distinct. Just a general cacophony that indicated a large mass of humanity nearby. Through one last door, and Tashigi found herself in a small armory. A wide variety of weapons were arrayed in racks along the walls of the long, narrow room, each one chained in place and securely locked. They were obviously taking no chances of a quick prisoner making off with an arsenal on a whim.

"Pick one." One of the guards gestured to the weapons while another moved forward to unlock her hands and feet.

The choice was quick and obvious – a _katana_ of decent quality and upkeep was present among the swords, and it was soon hanging at her belt. It didn't feel quite right, since the sword was heavier than Shigure and the hilt rougher to the touch, but it was a functional weapon nonetheless.

The guards took her to one last room, barely more than a cubicle, and left her there. There was another door at the other end of the space, and judging from the amount of sound seeping through around the frame it led directly out into the fighting ring under the gaze of hundreds of spectators.

She took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes, focusing on the image and recalled words of the man she would be facing momentarily. Vaguely she became aware of her fighting _ki_ rising up as she unconsciously clutched the hilt of her replacement sword, and realized that this place was apparently within the null range for her collar. That wasn't an important fact right then, but it needed to be stored away for future reference.

The outer door began to rise, slowly giving view to a dusty dirt ring, surrounded on all sides by a several stories high wall that was covered in metal plates. Obviously they also took no chances of a prisoner bolting into the crowd areas during or after a fight.

She stepped out into the dimming sunlight. Apparently it was approaching evening, and about half of the ring was cast into shadow. This was quickly alleviated by overhead lights of momentarily blinding intensity being switched on with a loud 'clunk'. Her opponent was already present, a mace in his hand as he walked towards the center of the circular area.

The crowd's noise level rose to a roar at the appearance of the combatants. Tashigi tuned it out, focusing on the man before her. _With a heavy weapon like that, he must focus on power, not speed. _He was grinning again, more confident now that he had a few moments to recover from her tongue lashing. Tashigi determined to make him regret both his words and his attitude.

They met in the center, coming to a stop about ten feet apart. He hefted his mace up in both hands, settling into his starting stance. Tashigi drew her sword and took up an _en garde_ position with the sword up and horizontal in front her face.

A dusty wind blew across the space between the fighters as the crowd's sound began to die off. Everyone was waiting for the fighting to begin.

"I won't take it easy on you." The mace wielder grinned, displaying yellowed, jagged teeth. "I'll make you beg."

Tashigi's eyes narrowed. "Bring it on."

-----------------------------

End Ch. 2

**Next Time** – Tashigi's Duel! Put your fighting spirit into it, and come out the victor! Zoro, get off your lazy butt and do something spectacular too!


	3. Tashigi's Duel! Justice & Loyalty

**A/N:** I think I might explain my 'dialect' here a bit. I'm of the school of 'Pick One Language and Stick With It'. Therefore, when my Japanese is good enough for me to write a fanfiction in Japanese, that is when you will find Japanese words throughout the fic. And I do speak, read and write Japanese at an Intermediate level. The only time I use Japanese words is when there is no English equivalent, when I am describing a Japanese item like a _katana_, or when the Japanese term conveys some meaning that the English translation doesn't. Like with '_Sensei_,' the word 'Teacher' just doesn't have the same depth of respect and connotations attached to it. '_Okama'_ also falls in this category, though for different reasons.

I also use 'Swordsman' to describe people of BOTH genders who use swords as weapons. This is not a typo or a mistake, it is a personal choice. In Japanese, there is no separate word for a female swordfighter, and it gets tedious to write out 'woman swordsman' or 'female swordfighter' all the time. I just don't like the ring of 'swordswoman' either. So there.

**Chapter 3**:

Nothing moved in the ring for a long moment. The crowd became restless quickly – they were there for blood! Tashigi refused to be rushed though; she was completely focused on driving this man into the dirt in the most painful and humiliating way possible. It would be him who was begging by the end.

So, Tashigi had something of a vicious streak herself, but one couldn't become a master swordsman without having a bit of bloodlust after all. And she'd been having a really, really bad day so far.

Her opponent wasn't nearly so calculating however. After a few tense moments, the yells from the crowd egged him on and into action. With an ear splitting battle cry, he launched himself forward, mace swinging upwards in preparation of smashing down on the much smaller swordsman.

As expected, he was actually quite slow. Tashigi could see how he had managed to get that scar on his face, and probably many others as well, just by being incapable of dodging.

Dropping into a crouch, Tashigi brought her blade down at her side and launched herself forward with her bent legs. She was abruptly moving forward at great speed and very low altitude, which were the two circumstances that the large, lumbering mace man was least equipped to deal with.

The two met in the center of the ring, their paths crossing and then passing each other. Tashigi slid to a stop and quickly spun around, her blade flashing in the artificial light. A droplet of blood flew off the sword tip, spattering down into the dust.

Her opponent staggered at the end of his own charge, one hand falling from its grip on his mace to clutch the gaping slash that had opened up across the thigh of one leg. He cursed fairly fluently at the pain, but it was nothing worse than Tashigi had heard in all her days as a sailor. Not that she was paying much attention to his words unless they included the phrase 'I quit.'

She decided she would also accept phrases such as 'I surrender' or 'Uncle!' as well. 'Kill me now' was a little extreme, but it would work too.

He twisted around and, raising his weapon overhead once again, moved towards her. She held her ground until he was only a few paces away. Even as he began his downward swing, aiming to crush her shoulder and sword arm apparently. She bolted forward again, the hot steel of her blade ripping easily through the flesh of his other leg.

He faltered and then collapsed to his knees, his lower extremities no longer capable of supporting his weight. Tashigi turned to face him again and began circling in on her wounded opponent like an angry tiger. Her red-stained blade was up and ready to take advantage of whatever opening he gave to make his life a little less worth living.

As her path took her around in front on him, his eyes tracked her with a glazed, enraged gleam. One of his hands was still clutching a badly bleeding leg wound, but the other refused to relax its grasp on the massive mace. As she came around directly in front of him, the fingers around the mace handle twitched spasmodically and then clenched, the weapon rising into the air again. There was no way he could hit her at the current distance, so perhaps he was planning to throw it at her and catch her during her dodge?

A poor plan, and not one she felt like going along with particularly. In raising the weapon, he was also leaving his abdomen dangerously exposed to attack. This was a failing that Tashigi had no intentions of letting slide past. She slowed in her stalking, lowering her blade in preparation for her last attack.

Finally, the mace has high enough to be out of her line of attack. Abruptly shifting her weight, she launched towards him again, blade leading the way. She realized her mistake after only a moment as the other's yellowed teeth appeared again in a sinister grin. She was too far in to completely avoid what happened next.

He abruptly let go of the mace allowing it to drop into the dirt of the arena floor. Its impact threw up quite a cloud of dust, and his fist added to the impromptu smoke screen by impacting the ground as well, throwing up a wall of dirt clods that peppered Tashigi's approaching form.

Blinded by the little explosion of the dual impacts, Tashigi only sensed something swinging in on her from the side. She tried to shift her momentum to get out of its path, but was only partly successful. His other fist impacted her small form, throwing her out of the dust cloud violently.

Stunned for just a moment, she hit the dirt on her side and slid for several feet before coming to a stop. It had been a powerful blow, but no serious damage had been done, fortunately. She'd also managed to keep her sword both in her hands and not in any position to accidentally slash or stab herself during the fall. Her own daily experience with inopportune clumsiness had served her well there.

The light wind that had been circling the arena since the beginning of the fight quickly began to disperse the other's camouflage covering. Both his hands were on his legs now, and an impressive pool of blood was starting to form a sticky circle around him. He was looking distinctly pale, and Tashigi deduced that one of her attacks must have been deep enough to catch a vein. If it had been an artery he'd have been dead long ago, to little remorse on her part.

A roar had arisen from the crowd at the action in the ring, the vibration of many voices resonating through everything in the arena. Resolutely, Tashigi rose once again, this time moving in on her opponent more cautiously. He had apparently abandoned the mace, since it wasn't doing him any good, and had opted to perform offense and defense with only his hands. Naturally, this wasn't met with much joy by the spectators since this was supposed to be a battle between weapons users, but it was the only logical decision at the time. It obviously wasn't going to change the outcome of this fight, but he seemed more concerned with making sure she didn't get out of that ring unscathed at that point.

Tashigi hesitated for a moment. Was there any point in drawing this out any longer? Now that she had so clearly and handily won the battle, her desire to punish the man before her was fading. Unfortunately, no one seemed inclined to end the fight before one of them was down flat and incapable of further combat. The crowd was getting positively fanatical with the delay as well.

Resolutely, she decided that the best thing to do would be to finish this off quickly – the next attack would be the last. And she knew exactly how she would do it too. Her favorite attack, but with an ironic twist.

Dropping her blade down to her side, she got a good running start toward the crippled man before her. His hands rose up, preparing to inflict whatever damage they could as soon as she was within range. She charged in headlong, blade still low.

As his hands began to snap closed on her, she slammed her leading foot down into the dirt, gouging into the soft soil and then kicking it up with her momentum. The dirt flew straight up into his face, causing him to flinch backwards. It was just enough for Tashigi's sword to snap upwards in a vicious diagonal line, slicing a path across his chest.

She finished off her momentum, coming to a stop behind him once again. "Don't worry, that slash isn't deep enough to kill you…"

She trailed off as she turned around. He was already flat out on his side, the new wound bleeding just as profusely as the others she had already inflicted.

"Ah, he's already unconscious… oh well."

---------------------------

Zoro felt like crap. Really, this was quite possibly the worst he had ever felt in his entire lifetime. Excruciating pain, severe blood loss, those kinds of things could be pushed aside with an 'it'll heal' attitude. The complete loss of all fighting spirit, however, as in an entirely different realm.

It was like an overall ache, bone deep, that every now and again would centralize in one old battle wound such as the large scar on his chest or the pair ringing his ankles. These were sudden flashes of pain, which quickly disseminated to the rest of his being once again. Not having any particular point to focus on ignoring made it difficult to tune out the discomfort. It was hard to disregard your entire body, after all.

So, they'd managed to put one of those damned collars on him. They'd taken no chances while doing so, gathering what appeared to be an entire squad of guards to block off every conceivable escape route and making sure to shackle him up even for the brief trip outside the cell. At least these people were taking him seriously.

He kind of wanted to sleep, but that too was evading him. He was completely lethargic and unmotivated, his body feeling weak and uncoordinated. Was this how normal people felt on a daily basis? If so, how could they stand it?

His misery was interrupted by the return of Tashigi. She was rather dusty, but otherwise none the worse for wear. She was also alone, with her previous opponent nowhere in sight. The implications of this fact sank into the shriveled walnuts the other prisoners were using as brains very quickly. She was definitely not a person to pick a fight with on a whim.

Sighing, she dropped down onto the floor, a perfectly calculated distance away from the green haired swordsman. Exactly close enough to feasibly hold some sort of conversation without implying any sort of camaraderie or friendship in the least. "I really didn't get a chance to notice it before, but these _ki_ sealing runes are very effective, aren't they?"

Zoro nodded emphatically. That was about the most energetic thing he could summon up at the moment to express the level of his displeasure. She continued absently, "The current situation aside, these things would probably be very useful to the World Government for containing law-breakers…"

After surreptitiously checking to make sure that no one else was listening in to pick up on the references to Tashigi's occupation - no one dared to get close enough, fortunately – Zoro responded quietly. "I'm sure you'll give them an outstanding first hand reference, right Ms. Criminal?"

"I am not a criminal!"

"Say what you want, but you're still locked up in here just like me. And they," he nodded in the direction of the two bored looking guards stationed at either end of the walkway outside the cell, "Seem to think you're guilty of something."

"This is a misunderstanding! I'm not like you, who deserves to be in such a situation."

"Misunderstanding? We violated their laws, didn't we? Doesn't Justice say that you're supposed to respect the law, or does that only apply to rules made up by the World Government?" Personally, Zoro thought it was just as inane as she no doubt did, but couldn't resist the temptation to ruffle her up again. It was best to get ahead in points while the other side wasn't expecting it, after all.

"No, but…" She trailed off for a moment, obviously not liking where this conversation was going but ethically unable to back down from a fight with him, "Even so! These laws themselves are unfair, and we weren't given a chance to conform to them or avoid this at all!"

"Oh? And what if someone thinks the laws of the World Government are unfair? Does that mean they can ignore them too? That's how these people seem to feel, after all."

"No! That's… that's unreasonable. The World Government is a longstanding institution with the best interests of all its citizens in mind."

"Ah. Majority rules. Tradition is Law. I see."

"That is absolutely not the case. I am simply saying that the World Government has achieved the level of status and peace that it has due to its reasonable and moral governing." Zoro rolled his eyes at her circular and somewhat hypocritical argument, but didn't feel like continuing the conversation any further. "Besides, you're a criminal outside of this little island as well, unlike me. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they've already executed the rest of your crew, since they're such dangerous people." She concluded with certainty.

"Heh. You think so?" Execute Luffy? Not likely – the Powers That Be seemed to have something against that happening. He might be captured, but there was no way that guy was dead.

------------------------

_Meanwhile, elsewhere…_

These people could not have created a better means to torture Smoker if they had honestly tried. Really, it was amazing just how unbelievably frustrating, annoying and just plain painful this whole accidental situation was.

The Captain of the Straw Hat Pirate Crew was in the cell across from him. Seastone bars were also doing an incredible job at keeping both of the Devil's Fruit users confined. Where a dwinky and worthless nation like this had gotten enough Seastone to build cells out of it he wasn't sure, but he seemed to recall a World Government shipment of the stuff going missing in this area not too long ago.

That aside, the target of his personal manhunt was feasibly within his grasp, and yet completely beyond his ability to capture. Furthermore…

"Nah, do you think it's almost time for dinner?"

"How should I know? I think it's probably too soon, though."

"You still have an appetite Luffy? I would have thought all this Seastone stuff would have made you fell pretty bad."

"It does! But I'm still hungry!"

Half of the rest of the Straw Hats crew was in here with them as well. The blond man in the suit, the Demon Child Nico Robin, and that red haired woman were present in separate cells. In addition, almost all of Smoker's Marine crewmen were jailed in the same area, which eliminated the possibility of a speedy rescue operation.

A few of the pirates were missing, but some of Smoker's crew were absent as well. Most notably, Tashigi had been nowhere to be seen or heard in the entire time since he and the rest had awoken there. He had a few theories about her whereabouts, but nothing he planned on counting on until he got some evidence.

Until he got that evidence, and until he could figure a way out of this particular situation, he was stuck in that cell. Across from Straw Hat. Who was now apparently picking his nose… with the pinky toe of his left foot.

A vein throbbed in Smoker's temple. And he was suffering some serious nicotine withdrawal too.

--------------------------------

End Ch. 3

**Next Time – **Zoro's Fight! Show us your manly pride! But remember, you can't stay here too long!

**Ending Note:** Thank you all for your reviews. Rest assured that I read and appreciate every one of them. I also check out the profiles and stories of everyone who reviews for me or adds me to their favorites, because I'm curious about what kinds of people my writing appeals to. I have a pretty diverse crew, and that makes me proud. I've contemplated e-mailing everyone who leaves a review, but I think that might edge in on stalking and I don't want to be arrested this year. See you next chapter!


	4. Zoro's Fight! The Sparks Fly

**A/N**: Hopefully this one didn't take as long as the last one! I kept changing my mind about last chapter… I pushed a good bit of my storyline back, moving it farther ahead into later chapters as I aim to develop the story, the characters and their relationship a little better. I had to research Zoro's attacks for this one… it's both annoying and convenient that he actually has a whole repertoire already.

This chapter brought to you by Key Lime Pie Yogurt. It's Whisker-Lickin' good.

**Chapter 4:**

As far as he was concerned, Zoro's turn to fight couldn't come soon enough. He was already really, really over this whole spiritless thing, and the idea of a chance to let loose on an opponent, no matter the circumstance, really appealed at the moment. When they finally decided to pit him against someone, he was only too eager to respond, and he was apparently going to be pretty much the last fight of the night for that first evening. Leaving Tashigi behind in the safety of her badass reputation, he allowed himself to be led to the arena. He observed the same scenery that Tashigi had passed earlier, and perked up considerably when introduced to the fighter's arsenal. He then got a little bit of bad news.

"Pick one."

"One?" Zoro eyed the guards dubiously.

"Just one." They were quite adamant. He guessed that they weren't fool enough to let him have three swords either. Sighing in irritation, he stepped over to the rack of weapons and made his choice.

His fighting _ki_ flared up as soon as he was left in the fighting ring entry cubicle. The rush of energy was entirely too welcome and he paused for a moment to enjoy the return of his normal state. How could he have taken this for granted for so long?

As the door began to open, he absently considered his opponent. He'd been so distracted with feeling crappy that he hadn't noticed who they'd pulled to fight against him at all. Just like Tashigi had declared for herself, he was absolutely positive that there was no one in that ragtag little group that was close to a match for him. Of course, he was at something of a disadvantage since he had only one sword to fight with. Even two would have been nice…

_I should probably spend a little time actually working on my one sword techniques after all this. Just as a refresher sort of thing._ He made a mental note – hopefully it wouldn't get lost in the clutter – and stepped out into the glaring white light.

It was getting quite late in the evening, but the crowds above were still very energetic. Apparently he was a bit of a star attraction as well, judging from the roar that arose at his appearance. Fame was one thing, but he could do without being labeled as Sideshow Freak #1.

He glanced around, came unknowingly to the same conclusions as Tashigi about any escape possibilities, and resigned himself to simply enjoying the fight. His opponent still hadn't emerged from the dark square that marked his own entry cell, so Zoro took a moment to further inspect the sword he had ended up bringing along. It wasn't great, but he'd used worse in the past. At least it wasn't likely to rust into pieces after one use or anything.

A rousing round of catcalls and open laughs drew him from his weapon contemplation, and he realized that the other fighter had finally made his appearance…

Zoro paused. Of all the fighters they could have picked to go against him, it was this one? His voice was flat as he pronounced the name of the current situation.

"_Okama_."

"How dare you! I am all woman!" The other's indignation at the label was somewhat undermined by the fact that his Adam's apple was rather prominent… and Zoro was sure that was some beard stubble starting up around the edges there. Shaking his head, Zoro just settled in for the fight.

"Another short battle, I guess."

"First you insult me, and now you underestimate me as well! You should know better, especially after those fine words from your female companion earlier."

This obviously referred to Tashigi's rant on gender inequality and looking down on women. Just recalling it, and all the ones he had heard before, was enough to make his eyebrow twitch in irritation. Yep, it made him angry. And that made him want to pummel people.

Zoro drew his sword slowly, allowing the hiss of metal-on-metal to be drawn out meaningfully as he glared at the man-woman in front of him. The other's weapon was nowhere in sight, hidden somewhere within the flowing and loose clothing s/he wore. It couldn't be anything too large or heavy…

The only way to find out was to go ahead and start the fight anyway. Blade up, Zoro darted in for the first strike. He didn't make it far before he threw himself aside, dodging a bit of pseudomotion caught out of the corner of his eye.

A sharp 'crack!' echoed from the space where his head had been, Zoro himself now at a safe distance. "A whip, eh?"

That was kind of… disturbingly appropriate, but Zoro decided not to dwell too much on the 'whys' of his opponent's choice of weapon. Rather, there was a dilemma of sorts as well – as a swordsman he was a close range fighter, while the _Okama_ was using a whip, which was a mid-range weapon. If he could get in close enough, the other would be defenseless. But as for getting through that sphere of defense and offense, the prospects were painful. He knew there was little to no chance of being actually taken out by such a weapon, but a well aimed strike could cripple him. In particular, the face and eyes, along with other delicate parts of the anatomy, were often choice targets for whip wielders.

Basically, this fight would have been over in about three seconds if he had been given three swords. But as it was, with only one he actually had to pull back and contemplate his next move for a moment. His best bet would be speed, in this case…

The whip-wielder shuffled, slightly altering his position. It was probably intended to acquire a more defensive stance, but in the end it was just an opening for Zoro. Bolting forward, he raised his blade to catch the lash that was arcing down on him. As soon as the braided leather made contact with his blade, he twisted the sword and pulled it off to the side, quickly wrapping part of the whip length around the blade and pulling it away from its owner. The other managed to keep his grip on the handle of his weapon, but was still effectively disarmed.

Zoro's sword was also rather tied up, being wrapped in the whip's lash, so he had to use more basic means for his actual attack. This took the form of a solid elbow blow straight to his opponent's gut, throwing him backwards. Zoro felt the jerk on his arms and realized that the whip had also been freed by the motion, a testament to its handler's determination simply not to let go of his weapon. A wise sentiment, considering the circumstances.

Zoro hastily retreated to a point outside of the range of the whip, a little perturbed that his blow hadn't completely taken the other off of his feet. The relatively soft footing of dirt was working against charging power blows, it seemed.

"Ugh." The other coughed a few times rather dramatically. "Oh, you have no compassion! Hitting me so brutally!"

Zoro stared at the _Okama_. "This is a fight, you know."

"Yes, of course, but it's just obvious that I'm no match for you, and yet you attack me so viciously…"

"Well," Zoro took a step closer, "It's not like this is my idea or anything."

"Even so! You should hold back a little, shouldn't you?"

"I guess –" Zoro didn't get to finish his potentially noble sentiment, as the whip was abruptly in motion again, the speed too much for him to dodge.

He snarled as he felt a line of fire burn across his left shoulder. A sneak attack, and he had walked straight into it. How pathetic. Swearing, he charged forward in search of vengeance. The whip snaked in at him again, this time catching the forearm he had raised to protect his head. The pain was nothing compared to what he had experienced in previous battles, but it definitely wasn't enjoyable.

It was also a sad fact as well that he _was_ holding back, and quite a bit. He could have ended this fight long ago with his _36 Pound Cannon_ attack, but the poor fool quite possibly wouldn't survive such a thing. Killing in the midst of hard fought battle or when people were honestly trying to kill him was one thing, but taking the life of someone as pathetic as this… it would only dirty his blade. And no sword deserved that, even if this was just a loaner.

He made it into the circumference of the whip's range with only one or two more hits, his weapon leading the way purposefully. His opponent was backpedaling frantically, trying to keep him out of striking distance, but Zoro's headlong charge was not about to be evaded.

His target was obvious. Zoro's blade flashed and a stream of red followed its arc. The handle of the whip fell from its user's now neatly split open hand, a wound the continued fully down the forearm as well. It was a small punishment for royally pissing off one of the best swordsmen in the world, really.

"You… have no chivalry in you at all, do you?" The other gasped as the pain hit him.

"None." Zoro's grin was feral as he closed in again. The flow of the blade continued, aiming to drive the lesson home in a very pointed manner. Zoro's sword flew unerringly to the other man's neck, the sharpened edge grinding along the metal collar, sending sparks flying rather dramatically.

Zoro brought his momentum to a stop as the other tumbled backwards, instinctively clutching his wounded limb to his chest while looking extremely stunned. Zoro was about to dive in for the finishing blow when he observed the other twitch and writhe in a very unexpected manner. Was it some sort of strange seizure? No, there appeared to be something wrong with his _ki_…

Zoro jerked and jumped backwards as a loud siren abruptly cut into his hearing. "Fight over! Winner, Roronoa Zoro!" A voice blared from a hidden loudspeaker somewhere in the arena, and a squad of heavily armed guards burst out of the two doorways that had admitted the combatants originally.

Zoro twitched a second time as he abruptly felt his _ki_ being shut off again – apparently they had some sort of mechanism to selectively activate the runes in this place as well, not simply having them off all of the time. That was unfortunate, as it limited escape possibilities.

Zoro watched as his recent opponent was roughly dragged upright and hauled out of the fighting ring while other guards closed in on him. There was no point in fighting them here and now, but maybe there was something else to take advantage of…

----------------------

_Three days later…_

Several days had passed in the confines of the ever-so-exciting fighting arena for both Tashigi and Zoro. They were not only still prisoners, but they were drawing quite the crowd whenever either of them went up to fight. A series of stunning victories, coupled with obvious reputations, were definite crowd bringers.

The pair had already passed to the third level of the fighters, the first having been the random assortment they had come in with – no contest to them, and so they had been immediately promoted after their first fights. The second level had basically been comprised of those who had survived their first fight, and were still capable of combat. These people too were no match for either of the swordsmen, and only one match had been fought against this level of fighter as well.

Level Three was where it started to get serious. Those who had risen to that point were not random people who happened to know how to use a weapon. Instead, these were fighters of considerable skill, though not world famous by any means. Basically, all of the people at the third rank would be capable of walking into a bar full of Marines, shouting 'Down with the World Government!' and probably being able to walk out with their necks intact. Of course, if Tashigi was one of those Marines at the bar, it might turn out differently…

At any rate, the third rank of fighter was also where perks started appearing for those who had fought their way up. First and second levels were kept in the lowest part of the fortress in mass cells. In upper ranks, you managed to acquire your own cell, or only have one or two roommates at most.

As it was, no one wanted to share space with Zoro. Naturally, he wasn't complaining about having the room to himself, but he couldn't seem to get away from Tashigi either. She was in the cell next door to his own, also by herself. This may have been due to her reputation in the ring, or it could have been that she was of the very rare breed of 'female' among the prisoners. So far, Zoro had actually seen two other women among the prisoners, the _Okama_ not being counted here, and they were rather macho battler types.

His observation of the other prisoners notwithstanding, there wasn't much to occupy Zoro between his fights. Furthermore, he had this terrible sensation of impending doom the longer he spent in captivity. He needed to get out, and soon. It was disturbing enough that he hadn't gotten any sense of the rest of the Straw Hat crew coming to fetch him, which strongly implied that either they were in a worse situation than he had thought, or that he was. How far, exactly, had that boat taken him to bring him here? How long had he been unconscious after his capture? Was it possible that he was far removed from the rest of his crew, and so the total amount of escaping and rescuing involved was compounded by many degrees?

In addition to all of that, no one had shown up to claim Tashigi in any fashion either. His own crew aside, the Marines had the World Government backing them and should have made little issue of tracking down one of their officers when she was wrongly imprisoned.

Right now he actually had high hopes of escaping his imprisonment and wiping this whole stupid diversion from his memory. His plan, vaguely taking shape over the last few days, also involved a lot of running away really fast from a certain Marine. Too bad he couldn't bring himself to completely abandon her here. Damn his stupid conscience, teaming up with nostalgia to make him do things he didn't want to!

Ah well. As long as he had to take her along, he might as well put her to good use. His plan would be a lot less risky and much easier to pull off if he could get her to help. Convincing her probably wouldn't be easy, though.

Considering this, he cast a glance over towards her cell. He had been pointedly avoiding looking in that direction all day, since their traditional breakfast time argument. What had it been about today? Something stupid, as usual…

He blinked in surprise. Her cell was empty. When had they come and taken her? Perhaps it was that during his mid-morning nap? Well, maybe her fight had been moved further up in the day. He took a moment to rise to his feet and move to the front bars of his temporary quarters, peering out across the walkway that separated the two lines of cells in this long room. Now that they were at a higher level, fights were also predetermined and planned, so if Tashigi was fighting then her opponent should also be gone.

The man was, in fact, still present. He looked rather bored, actually. He and a couple of other inmates had taken notice of Zoro's movement and were observing his consternation with interest.

"Lookin' for her?" One of them called out, someone that Zoro knew was something of a veteran of the Arena, having been around for quite a while. What exactly that said about the man's skill level remained to be seen.

Zoro's glare obviously answered the man's question well, because he hastened to continue. "She's probably been taken to see the boss. And she probably won't be comin' back."

Zoro's voice was icy, a sudden feeling of doom – not quite so impending – falling across him. "What exactly does that mean?"

"Eh, well, it's like this, ya see…"

---------------------------------------

Tashigi was positive that her freedom was imminent. Surely she had been removed from the cells with all of those criminals and brought to the upper parts of the fortress because the World Government had learned of her plight and intervened on her behalf. Surely. The fact that she still had manacles on her hands and that collar around her neck was just a matter of procedure, she was positive.

She and the two guards that had liberated her from her cell on the lower levels came to a stop in front of a pair of large wooden double doors. One of the armored men took a moment to knock, and the small group was admitted by a muffled call from the other side of the doorway. Upon entering she was left alone in the center of a clear space while her escorts fell back to positions behind her on either side.

Before her was a large, elaborately carved wooden desk, and seated behind it was a rather slick looking individual. He possessed blond hair and a blindingly white grin, which he was displaying prominently. The man, who had been seated, rose to his feet and moved around the furniture to come up in front of Tashigi, apparently inspecting her quite closely. The young Marine bristled at the attention, but kept her peace. After all, she was about to be set free. She wouldn't have to put up with any of this for much longer.

"So, it's true!" He spoke, causing her to refocus on the present abruptly. "A lovely young woman such as yourself, placed in among the rabble that is condemned to punishment here in my Arena."

"Yours?" Tashigi thought back for a moment. "Then you must be Rokku, the one who owns this place?"

"Indeed I am. And your name?" He stepped a little closer as he asked the question, causing her to lean backwards semi-unconsciously. He was verging on an invasion of her personal space there.

"Ah, Tashigi. Sergeant Major Tashigi."

"Sergeant?" He seemed a bit taken aback to be informed of her full title. "You're with the Marines?"

"Y-yes. Of course." Wait, hadn't she been summoned her because the World Government had stepped in? He should already know basic things like that…

"I knew we had taken a Marine ship a short while ago, but I didn't think you were from that crew… well, no matter!" he clapped his hands together, causing her to jump slightly at the abrupt sound. "I have no intention of allowing you to continue to suffer among the hordes down below."

"Well, I thank you for that, but what --?"

She didn't get to finish her question as he cut her off, abruptly changing the subject. "And I'm told that you are a swordsman?"

"Ah, yes. My sword was taken from me when I was captured as well." She jumped at the opportunity to elaborate as well, hoping it would lead to the return of her weapon.

"Hmmm." He stepped back over to his desk and appeared to consult a ledger of some sort for a moment. "The green and white one, wasn't it?"

"Yes! Shigure."

"A named blade? Yes, it says so here… not on the list of top _Meitou_, but a fine weapon."

"You have it here?" She could hear the hope in her own voice. That sword was like a part of her soul, and she had been dearly missing it all this time.

"Oh, no. Certainly not." He waved her query off easily, causing her to droop a bit at the revelation. "As it happens, one of the higher ranking government officials in our fine nation is something of a weaponry aficionado. He takes possession of all high quality arms that are confiscated from prisoners."

"Then he would have Roronoa's swords as well…" Tashigi murmured, simply making a mental note for future reference as leverage against that infuriating pirate. If it came down to it, she'd have to liberate those weapons as well anyway.

"Roronoa? He came in with three _Meitou_, didn't he? How flamboyant." Rokku sniffed dismissively. "Well, he is of no concern to either of us."

She watched as he spun around, stepping away from the desk again and motioning to the pair of guards. "You two, wait outside. I wish to have a private conversation with the lady."

They didn't acknowledge the order verbally, simply turning and walking out the door without a backward glance, leaving Tashigi behind and more on her guard than ever. This situation was not turning out as she had expected at all, and she was starting to acquire a few other suspicions as well.

She opted to move the conversation along purposefully in the direction she wanted. "Why exactly am I here, if I may ask?"

"Certainly! I am glad to enlighten you." There was that blindingly white grin again. "You see, I feel it is my duty as a man to make sure that beautiful women do not suffer unduly when there is something I may do about it. You, of course, fall into such circumstances."

She raised one eyebrow incredulously, but decided to allow him to continue speaking. Perhaps he would actually come up with a valid point to all this in the next few moments?

"Now, I have rescued many like yourself from identical circumstances, so I will offer you the same conditions that all of them have so eagerly accepted."

Tashigi was silent, still waiting to see where, exactly, this was going.

"In exchange for immediate removal from the ranks of the fighters and release from this place, you may have the honor of joining the assemblage of my companions. It is an excellent trade, you will find, as you will be treated very well in your new position –"

Unable to remain silent for a second longer Tashigi cut him off, incredulous as to what her ears were telling her he was suggesting. "A-are you inviting me to join your _harem_?"

"Well, that's not the word I prefer to use for it…"

They had taken care to chain Tashigi's hands when they brought here to this place. That kept her, unfortunately, from strangling this man outright. They had conveniently forgotten about doing something about her feet, however.

Her target was in range, having sidled ever closer over the last few minutes. One of her boots shot up purposefully, landing a solid hit exactly where she had aimed.

Any further 'convincing' by Rokku was cut off as his words became an inarticulate gasp of pain… and then he toppled ever so slowly to the floor. Tashigi put her foot back down just as slowly, glaring down at her prone captor.

"That has to be the _worst_ pick up line I have ever heard."

--------------------------

End Ch. 4

**Next Time – **It's a Plan! No more stalling - Let's put it into action right away!

**Ending Note**: Awww, you didn't think I'd give Zoro a normal fight, did you? Where's the fun in that? Besides, I like messing with him too much. Also, it kind of seems like there are a lot of perverts in this story… but there are perverts everywhere in One Piece too, right? At least one in every story arc so far, I think. It gives Tashigi a good reason to hand down Justice on all fronts as well.

_Everything happens for a reason…_


	5. It's a Plan! Glass & Metal

**A/N**: Short chapter. Feel my lack of guilt. Feel it. Especially after the monster that was last chapter.

In answer to reviews: Zoro does indeed have 3 _Meitou_. And _Meitou_ is literally a "Named Blade", one made by a master swordsmith and of such quality that the smith decided to name it upon completion, and they have legendary status. Wadou Ichimonji (One Road to Harmony) is Zoro's most famous and highest quality one, but Yubashiri (Snow Run) and Sandai Kitetsu (Third Demon Splitter) are also _Meitou_. Tashigi's Shigure (Autumn Rain) is also a _Meitou_, but not of the ranking of Zoro's three swords. Other _Meitou_ in One Piece include Kokutou Yoru (Black Blade Yoru, owned by Mihawk), Kashu (Flower State, Tashigi won it from Mr. 11), and Shuusui (Clear Autumn Water – this one's origin is a spoiler, so I won't say any more than that).

A harem is, for those who don't know, a group of females controlled/owned by one male, for his own purposes (ahem). There are some more literal references to Muslim culture, but I use the pop culture/common language meaning for it.

See? I know how to research! XP

**Chapter 5:**

Still fuming, Tashigi was quickly dropped back off in the lovely confines of her cell. Roronoa had perked up when she originally arrived, but had retreated to the far side of his own little space after one look at her expression. In situations like this the man was clearly not completely stupid.

She then proceeded to pace rather like a caged wolf for several minutes, back and forth in the roughly five by ten foot area. Some of the other prisoners were also watching the display, but she paid them no mind. How dare that man attempt such a thing! There were no two ways about it; this entire country was completely backward and filled with denizens of the lowest levels of society.

Unfortunately, without access to her fighting spirit, she quickly tired in her rage and was forced to retire to the back wall of the enclosure to stew some more. Even that was giving her a headache, and she realized she just couldn't be properly outraged while she was confined in this place with this damnable collar around her neck.

Sighing deeply, she gave up on her anger, somewhat comforted by the fact that she'd at least gotten one good hit in on that bastard. Lifting her eyes, she glanced around and spotted Roronoa still watching her warily.

"What?" She snapped irritably, even though her heart wasn't really in it anymore.

"Well, from what I was told, you shouldn't be here." He slid a little closer so that their conversation wouldn't be broadcast to all the other not-so-subtly listening people about. "You were supposed to have disappeared, never to be seen again."

She snorted in irritation. "That scum…"

"Well, at any rate, it's good that you've come back from the abyss."

"Huh?"

"Well, it'd be a lot harder to get out of here without your help. I know you probably don't want to team up with me at all, but it's probably our best bet for actually escaping…" He trailed off at her somewhat stupefied expression. Perhaps she was caught unawares by the fact that he was capable of thought?

She managed to regain herself enough to finally respond to his insinuation. "Escape? How?"

"Well, actually, I have a little bit of a plan…"

--------------------------------------

Zoro was still waiting when Tashigi was escorted back from her battle that evening. Even after the excitement of the morning, she still had her fight on the schedule and it had gone on without any sort of hesitation.

The returning swordsman looked somewhat the worse for wear, being rather dusty and sporting a few new rips in her clothes. Luckily she wore enough layers that it was going to take a bit of work to make her indecent. Zoro had enough problems as it was without adding an issue like that to his list.

She had her glasses in one hand, and it looked like there might be a bit of a scratch in one lens. She dropped down onto the cold stone a few feet away from Zoro, separated by the bars between their cells, and sighed.

The green haired swordsman decided to strike up a conversation, since they were apparently on fairly friendly terms today and all. She'd even listened to his plan in full earlier, though she hadn't given her final word on whether she was willing to go along with anything he had come up with, on principle.

Referring to her opponent, who was once again nowhere in sight, he began, "So, you kicked his ass, right?"

"I won, yes." She grumbled, not bothering to actually turn to look at him. She set about trying to polish out the damage to her glasses with the mostly clean hem of her shirt. He watched her for a few moments before daring to comment further.

"You know, if one of these guys gets the bright idea to destroy those," Zoro gestured to the glasses, "You're gonna be defenseless in there."

"I am aware of that problem." She replied irritably, "I've been dealing with it ever since my eyesight went bad. It's difficult to have such an obvious weakness as a swordfighter."

"Then what are you doing about it?"

"Well, I focus on defense, so that no one gets the chance to damage them…"

Zoro snorted and rolled his eyes. "So that's why you're so bad…"

"What?!" Tashigi was on her feet instantly, looming over him threateningly. He wondered how she managed that kind of rage with her fighting _ki_ disabled. Maybe some things surpassed the limits of the physical…

At any rate, he needed to explain before she got around to that whole spleen removal thing. Different cells or no, he didn't put it past her to rip him into pieces tiny enough to pull between the bars so that she could maul him properly. "Not like that! You're an excellent swordfighter, and have potential to do a lot more than you do. If you spend all your time focusing on protecting your weakness, it only makes it that much more obvious as a target!"

"It's not like I have a choice!" She was still standing over him, but Zoro was doing his best not to be intimidated. She was just a woman, after all.

"Sure you do! Instead of protecting a weakness, you should eliminate it."

"Eliminate it? It's not like I can make my eyes any better…" She was quickly losing steam, much to the benefit Zoro's continued health.

"Well, with practice you might be able to, but that's not what I'm saying." Zoro shook his head and lifted one hand to scratch the nape of his neck. "You should focus on fighting without relying on your eyes, since they don't do you much good anyway."

She took a step back and actually appeared to be contemplating this. Maybe she was too tired to arbitrarily dismiss him? "Well, I've heard to some blind fighters who were quite formidable."

"And you've got a step up on them, since you're not _completely_ blind anyway." Zoro crossed his arms over his chest and nodded seriously. "You just need to train yourself to work without much visual input."

"That sort of thing…" Tashigi finally sat back down, this time a little closer to Zoro's position. "It takes years to master, doesn't it?"

"If you put your mind to it and train hard, you can do it faster than that." The green haired one was completely certain.

"So you say." Tashigi glanced over at him. "Can you do it? Fight without your eyes?"

"Maybe. No, definitely. I probably wouldn't be as good, but I'd manage."

She was quiet for a moment, and then, "How can you be so confident?"

"Because a swordsman must be ready for all situations. If I ever have to fight blind, I'm sure I'll rise to the challenge. I've already had a few cases where pretty much all my senses were down for the count, and I still won."

"Really?"

"Yeah. There's this technique with 'the breath of all things', where you can pick up on the _ki_ of stuff…" He trailed off, not quite sure how to explain it further. Luckily, Tashigi managed to pick up his gist.

"Like sensing the life force of the people and objects around you?"

"Yeah, like that. If you master it, you can even do things like cut steel."

"Hmm. I see. Then you'd be able to get a really good idea of your opponent's strengths... maybe his weaknesses too." She murmured to herself, one hand rising up to grasp her chin in a classic 'thinking' pose.

Zoro twisted sideways to look at her directly. "Wait, that explanation made sense to you?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't it?" She blinked at him, politely confused.

"N-no reason." Zoro turned away. _It took me years to figure out what the hell Sensei was talking about._

"You know, I've always had a sort of idea of learning to fight like that… and you say you can learn to cut steel?" Now she was plainly curious.

"Sure. I've done it before." Only when seriously wounded, but he had actually accomplished that feat.

"So that's how you defeated Mr. 1…" She stopped, this memory apparently reminding her of other facts. Such as that she should not be holding a nice polite conversation on theories of swordsmanship with Zoro. Glaring at him, having been reminded of exactly what kind of a person he was, she turned away from him. "Well, it does me no good right now. There's no way for me to access my _ki_ and I don't want to attempt mastery of such a thing in the middle of the ring."

"Why not?" Zoro knew the conversation was almost at an end, but there were a few more things to be said anyway. "If you can't call upon a technique in the middle of a battle, what use is it?"

"There's that stupid confidence again." She snorted and glanced at him over her shoulder. "What if your enemy decides to kill you while you're figuring these things out? Or if you fail?"

"And it's that kind of attitude that's your problem, you know." Zoro pointed out.

"And it's your kind of attitude that's gotten you all those scars, isn't it?" She replied before proceeding to fully turn her back on him and ignore his presence. Zoro gave up on the conversation pretty readily at that point and moved over to the wall, intending to take a nap to pass the time until dinner. One last glance at Tashigi showed that she was definitely thinking though, and that was the point after all.

---------------------------------

_The next day…_

In the ring once again, Zoro squinted against the fine dust that was being kicked up by the near constant small breeze in the place. He wasn't really sure where the air current came from this deep underground. Perhaps they did it on purpose, for dramatic effect?

Either way, this fight was definitely going to be dramatic. Directly across from him, and approaching determinedly, was his opponent of the day. She had a very serious expression on her face, and he knew he was mirroring it. Zoro came to a stop a few yards distant of the center, and she did the same.

Tashigi glared across the short distance between them, one hand already purposefully placed on the hilt of her _katana_.

Apparently she was being punished for something, and that was why they found themselves pitted against each other so soon. Their fight had been anticipated basically since day one among the spectators, though it hadn't been scheduled as of yesterday. But today, there they were, staring at each other under the midmorning sunlight. And of course, the fight would only end when one or both of them were incapable of further battle.

Cocking his head to one side, he spoke, "So, here we are. I bet you've been looking forward to this."

Her eyes were invisible behind a glare on the lenses of her glasses. "You think so?"

"Well, isn't it you who always wants to fight me?"

"Hn. And you always run away. How many times now? Three?"

Wait, she knew about all of them? "What?! How would you know?"

"We've only fought once before, Roronoa, but I'm not completely oblivious." She began circling, compelling him to move as well. "I usually find out about it after the fact, but I generally know when you're around."

"After the fact doesn't do you much good though, does it?" He grinned at her, his comment and his expression causing her to tense in irritation.

"Enough of this. Let's just get this over with, you scum." Having announced this, she bolted forward as he knew she would, her sword flying out from its sheath in preparation for the battle.

He moved backwards a few steps, twisting sideways to catch her blade with his own, the steel ringing loudly in the arena. It was almost startlingly quiet until that moment, and then an abrupt roar arose from the spectators, almost deafening everyone present. Yes indeed, this was the fight they had been waiting for after all.

Pushing the hilt of his sword forward, Zoro forced Tashigi's _katana_ to slide down the length of his blade toward the tip. Wisely, she chose to disengage and acquire some space, preventing herself from being thrown off balance and giving him an opportunity to attack. She didn't pause for long though, darting around one of his sides to try to get his back.

Zoro let her go, holding his stance with his sword dropped but at the ready, only his eyes moving to follow her path.

Given her normal level of clumsiness, she shouldn't have been able to pull off her next maneuver, but somehow she did. While in mid-flight, she twisted around, abruptly shifting all of her momentum onto one foot and using it to launch herself back towards her opponent. Zoro spun around to meet the attack, forced to lean backwards as her blade, which had been heading low for his legs was abruptly shifted to aim at his face and neck.

Zoro ended up in a crouch, Tashigi bearing down on him from above. She didn't wait for him to counterattack, twisting her own sword off of his by paralleling the blades and then slashing forwards again. Zoro managed to duck and roll out of the way, coming up behind her.

To her credit, she wasn't perturbed by his capturing of her back, instead choosing to follow through with her swing and using the weight and momentum of the sword to pull herself around and out of easy attack range.

"Heh. You really have gotten better since we fought in Logue Town, haven't you?" Zoro stepped forward, taking the offensive for the first time in the fight.

"I've been training constantly! There is one person in this world who is going to put a stop to you, Roronoa, and that is me. Don't ever doubt it!"

"I never did." He smirked again, charging forward with his blade sweeping upwards for a power blow. His words may have thrown her off balance, but his expression and his actions were enough to inspire an instinctive counter by the female swordsman. She couldn't match him for power, and attempting to do so was likely to damage her arms, so she caught the strike and redirected it. As soon as the blades met, she twisted to roll the edge of his weapon off hers in a very unique maneuver, and then proceeded to move forward when she really ought to have been backing up to escape his immediate range.

Moving forward allowed her to come up basically chest-to-chest with him, and she proceeded to slam her weight into his right shoulder, knocking it backwards and allowing her to continue her path straight past him.

Zoro wasn't really knocked backwards by the abrupt body slam, but he couldn't quite dodge the edge of her blade, which had followed her path unerringly. Having been dropped and pushed backwards a bit, the sword passed over his shoulder… and raked along the metal collar around his neck.

The green haired swordsman twitched as he felt a line of fire burn across his nerves, the _ki_ in his body being manipulated unnaturally by the damage to the runes. He didn't let the pain even slow him down however, swinging around to charge after Tashigi.

She had come to a stop behind him, but quickly moved to avoid him as she sensed his approach from behind. While attempting to swing around to meet him face on, her innate clumsiness finally caught up with her for the first time in days.

Apparently it had been saving itself up, because she actually managed to twist one foot around, tripping herself in the direction of his charge. It was all he could do to avoid simply running her through on the spot, but he did manage to give as good as he had gotten, his blade marring the runes on her collar deeply. The metal wasn't steel, but it was a very hard substance that required a good bit of effort and concentration to cut. It was pretty amazing that she'd managed to damage his collar on her first try, and he made a mental note that she was not to be underestimated in that department.

Tashigi managed to regain her coordination enough to roll out of range, rising to her feet a little unsteadily as he watched her twitch with pain identical to his own. After only a moment her pain seemed to subside however, which was rather unfair since Zoro was still very uncomfortable.

There was no hesitation before she sought her revenge once again, moving forward before dropping into a crouch and slashing widely, aiming to cut him off at the knees. Zoro took the expeditious route of simply leaping over the arc of her swing and coming down on her from above, his sword aiming for her right shoulder. From her crouch she managed to launch herself forward and somewhat off to one side to avoid the battle ending blow.

The few moments it took for Zoro to land and regain his stance were used to rise to her feet and raise her own blade, bringing them to another momentary standoff. She was panting slightly from the exertion of all the attacks and acrobatics required to keep up with him, but she was managing to hold her own rather admirably. Zoro was slightly dusty, but otherwise none the worse for wear, his collar damage notwithstanding.

And speaking of which… it was still messing with his _ki_ rather badly. Perhaps that was why none of his last few attacks had connected at all. Tashigi didn't seem to be suffering the same problem, so his theory looked like it might be panning out. Even so, he wanted this whole situation to be over quickly. It was just a little too strange to be fighting against this woman, after all.

With that in mind, he charged forward once again, with Tashigi moving to meet his advance as well. Their swords clashed once again, the shock of the impact managing to jar the collar around Zoro's neck, which had the unexpected result of causing and excruciating jolt of pain to shoot down his spine. This stunned him for a moment, which allowed Tashigi to gain the upper hand in the head on confrontation.

Zoro threw himself backwards, shaking his head to throw off the pain and making note of the thin ribbon of red welling up along his forearm. So, first blood ended up going to Tashigi… how embarrassing. This was no doubt due to his distraction with his memories and nostalgia, which had no place in a fight.

Tashigi, or her part, was simply waiting back where he had left her. She seemed pretty surprised that she'd managed to wound him as well, and was observing his actions with interest.

"Something's wrong?"

"It doesn't matter." He shook himself one more time to throw off the pain, "And you're not supposed to have sympathy for your opponents anyway, are you?"

"No, but in this case there's no honor in attacking you when you're under the influence of something else."

"It doesn't matter what's 'influencing' me, this is a duel. The lesser man will lose." He turned to face her, blade raised, "Let's finish this."

"Fine." She narrowed her eyes and stalked forward, target in her sights. Zoro was on the defensive once again, holding his ground as she approached. He saw her last attack coming, and braced himself as she entered his range of attack. Holding back, he waited for her to close in, which she did shortly, her blade leading the way.

Ducking downwards, he moved forward to meet her, twisting himself sideways and raising his blade to deflect hers upwards.

The scrape of metal on metal indicated that the next piece of the plan was playing out just as designed. The new shock to Zoro's _ki_ system, followed by a relieving removal of the pain showed that it was proceeding perfectly. Coming to a stop, the two fighters exchanged a glance and a nod.

Both bolted for the side of the ring, which they had been gradually inching towards over the course of the fight anyway. The door to the entry area was off to the left of their target, but Zoro had carefully noted the place where the guards had appeared from after his first fight, when they had reclaimed his downed opponent. He led the way towards the camouflaged doorway, sheathing his sword and concentrating his _ki_ as he ran. As soon as the metal plating was in range, he unleashed his attack.

"Ittou-Ryu Iai – Shishi Sonson!"

The metal parted smoothly before his strike, revealing a darkened hollow that indicated a room beyond the wall. The pair bolted inside, but unfortunately this whole affair had been a little too much for Zoro's loaner blade. Even with his speed, Zoro didn't manage to resheath it before it snapped off about five inches from the hilt, the blade clattering to the ground at the feet of a squad of rather surprised looking Arena guards who occupied the room Zoro and Tashigi had just broken into.

"Damn. I broke another one…"

-------------------------------------

End Ch. 5

**Next Time – **Escape! This place sucks, so let's go somewhere with a beach!

Glossary:

Ittou-Ryu Iai – Shishi Sonson – (One Sword Style Draw and Resheath Technique: Lion's Song) – Zoro's steel cutting, "Breath Of All Things" attack. It's way too long in English, so I used the Japanese version. And I think this will be the case with all of Zoro's attack techniques in the future, since most, if not all, of them are in fact puns that I enjoy playing off of.

**Ending Note:** Not much happened in this chapter, and I'm sorry about that. The chapter breaks fall where they may however, and I can't do much about it this week.

Friday, Saturday or maybe even Sunday will be my update day(s) for this story from now on, I think. I make no promises, and I do as I please, but this is the kind of schedule I'm aiming for.


	6. Escape! Circles & Swords

**A/N**: REALLY. TIRED. OF. WRITING. FIGHTS. Sorry, it gets old after the first three or ten. Ugh, I need to move on to more plotline-ness! Ask and ye shall receive…

This chapter almost NOT brought to you by Final Fantasy Origins. I'm a FF otaku to the extreme and have been playing it near constantly for days, which kind of interferes with writing and stuff… but the Knight Krunk, the Ninja Butter, the Black Wizard Mr. E and the White Wizard Panzy are on strike today, so I wrote something. Geez, all I did was make them go dinosaur hunting for 45 minutes…

**Chapter 6:**

Rokku was enjoying a quiet afternoon of contemplation in his office when the doors slammed open rather rudely, admitting one young guardsman who apparently didn't want to be employed for very long. "Sir! It's an emergency!"

"What? What is it?"

"Two of the prisoners are escaping – they broke out of the ring and are making a run for it!"

He was out of his chair in an instant. This was unexpected and completely unprecedented. "How --? Never mind! Which ones are they?"  
"Those two new swordsmen."

This was a disaster! Never mind Roronoa, if that Marine managed to escape and report to the World Government somehow, it would be on his head. "Cut them off from their escape route! Bring out the armed squads!"

"We've tried that sir…" The young man trailed off, as if not quite sure how to continue.

He narrowed his eyes dangerously before grinding out, "And?"

"And… they're impossible to track. There seems to be no logical route that they're following. They're even backtracking and running in circles."

He pondered this for a mere moment before reaching a reasonable conclusion. "Some kind of strategy to keep us off guard and incapable of capturing them, no doubt. Surround them from all sides, bring every able bodied man out!"

His subordinate snapped off a quick salute. "Yes, sir!"

---------------------------------

On the fortress roof, a lonely wind blew. Tashigi and Zoro stood at the edge of the rooftop, but they were not enjoying the fine view their position granted at that particular moment.

"You… have no idea where we're going, do you?" One of Tashigi's eyebrows twitched dangerously.

Roronoa stood back with his hands on his hips, not quite pulling off the 'I meant to do this' expression. "Pfft. If we keep this up we'll find an exit eventually."

"Eventually?!" Normally, Tashigi was a nice, quiet and polite person. She had a good upbringing and a lot of respect for humankind. But Roronoa Zoro, merely by existing, was pushing her far, far past the limits that her personality was designed to endure.

"Sure. It's a building. There have to be lots of doors that go outside and stuff. And technically we ARE outside right now." He was oblivious, or at least uncaring, of the effect he was having, apparently.

She turned to him, using one hand to push her glasses back up the bridge of her nose so that she could see his face clearly and determine that he was, in fact, not kidding. "Did it ever occur to you that the doors leading 'out,' as in away from here, may not be upstairs? Particularly not on the ROOF?"

"No one asked you to follow me." Roronoa sniffed irritably.

Technically that was true, but… "You expected me to just turn and run off on my own in a place like this?"

"If you have a problem with me, then why not? You're a fighter aren't you?"

When it came out of his mouth, what was probably an indication of faith in her abilities somehow felt like a severe insult. She knew she was getting far too worked up in her own frustration, and eagerly took the diversion of the roof door bursting open to redirect her attentions elsewhere. Soldiers of the same type they'd been fighting for the last few minutes – or perhaps an hour, it was hard to say – were piling out onto the windy expanse, swords at the ready.

"Aha, swords!" Roronoa had a feral smirk on his face, and Tashigi could definitely tell why. Before this, they'd been confronted with spears, daggers, guns and a whip or two. Until now, no one had been fool enough to come close with a conveniently stealable sword or three. Her own 'borrowed' sword was much the worse for wear, sporting quite a few nasty nicks in the blade from repeated use as a means to open locked doors and such. Obviously the ranks of guards recruited to subdue the escaped prisoners were running low, and important information was getting lost in the hustle. Maybe there was something to this whole 'run around like an idiot' strategy that she had been missing… or perhaps not.

All they had to do was stand and wait for their new weapons to come to them. It gave her a momentary pang to contemplate using a yet another sword other than Shigure, but she comforted herself with the fact that there was no way she was going to leave this country without her precious blade. In that, at least, she and Roronoa could concur.

The guards, what was left of them, circled the pair warily. The roof edge behind kept them from being completely surrounded, but the half circle of heavily armed guards probably thought they had finally found victory against these wily foes.

They were unpleasantly surprised when both prisoners leapt into combat, not hesitating in the slightest. The only rule for targeting and opponent was 'who's closest?' Tashigi dove into a group of about five who had ended up farthest from the safety of the rooftop access door, what was left of her sword being put to painful use. From the sounds of chaos elsewhere it sounded like Roronoa was making good progress as well.

The man fell quickly before her attack, obviously not really expecting to be essentially clubbed by something that really _looked_ like a sword. The surprise allowed her to flatten one man and quickly liberate his sword from his now unconscious grasp. It was a scimitar, not a katana, but the long blade made short work of her next target. That one had been wielding a club, so there was nothing further to bother with there. More people were moving in, but obviously their training in group fighting was lacking. All they were managing to do was getting each others' way, leaving only a few actually in a position to attack the Marine.

She spotted a man moving towards her with a fairly nice looking katana in his grasp, and so he became the new goal and target. Slicing her way through the small crowd surrounding her, Tashigi lunged at the somewhat intimidated looking young man. He did try to put up a fight, but one well timed slice to the back of the hand had him dropping his weapon and running for it.

Now properly equipped, Tashigi could really let loose on those unfortunate souls who chose to attack her. Roronoa had already laid claim to three swords of his own, only two of which were actually katana. Apparently he was finding that these soldiers had little taste in weaponry as well, but it didn't seem to be hindering him in the slightest.

Finding herself momentarily in the clear, as the guards finally decided to regroup and possibly apply some sort of strategy, Tashigi retreated to a point within speaking distance of her impromptu comrade-in-arms.

Panting slightly, she addressed him. "This is all well and good, and we've got weapons now, but we can't just fight them up here forever. We need to get out of here."

"I guess you're right." He admitted. "There's no point in fighting people like this. They have no skill."

Not exactly the point she was trying to make, but she'd take what she could get. "Back downstairs then. We need to get lower in the fortress, and the staircase will be a good spot for a blockade to keep them from following us."

"Right." He turned around and eyeballed the remaining troops, who appeared to be psyching themselves up for another round. "Let's go."

"All of those guys are in the way though…"

"Not for long." With that not-so-vague insinuation, he bolted towards the group of guards. Wisely, they chose to scatter to either side, not impeding his progress for the most part. Tashigi followed in his wake, feeling a bit less useful but actually glad that she wouldn't have to injure of kill any more of these people. For the moment, anyway.

They made the stairwell with little resistance, though the men had tried to reorganize when the escapees' goal had become clear. A few of the guards had managed to step in, but they were nothing but speed bumps in Roronoa's mad charge. Tashigi didn't even have to do any cleanup, so she focused on watching the rear.

Once through the door, it was immediately slammed and Tashigi turned the simple lock to stall for a few moments. It wouldn't last long though. "We need to block this somehow."

After a moment of contemplation, Roronoa gestured with one sword. "Go farther down. I'll take care of this."

Shrugging, she decided that if he failed he would at least serve to stall those guys so that she could make something of a getaway. Since that was the case, she headed downstairs without hesitation.

She didn't make it far before a solid 'boom' echoed from behind her, and chunks of masonry started bouncing downwards, causing her to dodge. "What the--?"

Roronoa darted past her, somewhat dusty and with rock chunks on his hair and shoulders. "There. No door, no way to get in."

She paused to stare after him for a second, and then back upwards for a few more, but then decided that it was best to just get on with her life. At least it was an effective solution.

At the bottom of the stairs, they paused for a moment of indecision about their next move. Roronoa was quick to suggest a plan of action, however. "Okay, so, when we came up, we turned right. So, if we turn _left_ this time…"

Distracted from checking for signs of immediate pursuit, not that she really expected any, Tashigi twisted around to stare at him for a moment. "Are… are you serious? If we made a right on our way in and we make a left on our way out, we'll be going back the way we came!"

"Is that how it works? Huh. Weird."

"That's it, I'm taking the lead!"

--------------------------------------

_Meanwhile, elsewhere…_

"This is bad."

"Eh?"

"Very bad!" Usopp inched upwards to peek out over the edge of the rooftop one more time. Only for a moment though, then he ducked back down behind the protective cover of the roofline.

"But we know where they are now! That's a good thing, right?" Chopper was plastered as flat as he could be to the roof a few feet away. He looked rather like a little reindeer pancake, but that's not the kind of thing you say to a person who can turn into a seven foot tall monster-thing. Especially when trying to be non-suspicious and stealthy.

"Yes, but…" Usopp wiggled a little farther down the slope. "We're the two least effective people for rescue operations! Much less against armed guards and a whole fortress of people!"

"Ah! It's true! What will we do? Luffy and the others…" Chopper's eyes were large and tear filled at the thought of his imprisoned friends.

"Ugh. Is it really hopeless?" Usopp took one more peek at the distant building. "No, we can't let it end like this. As brave men of the sea, we must take action!"

Chopper was instantly on his feet, one little hoof-hand clenched in determination. "You're right! We're their only hope! What should we do?"

"In this case… more reconnaissance!"

The sound of something like the handle of a broom slamming into the underside of the roof beneath them made the pair jump and scramble away. "Would you two idiots get off of my roof already?!"

"Quick! To position Beta!"

-------------------------------------------

_Back on the ranch…_

"Excellent job leading."

"Shut up! At least I made some progress towards an actual escape route!"

"Huh. It's funny, from over here it kinda looks like we're cornered on a balcony."

"It may _seem_ that way, but…" Tashigi really didn't know where she thought she was going with that rebuttal, so it was fortunate she didn't have to finish it with any sort of brilliant metaphorical insight.

"Aha! Captured at last!" Rokku himself swaggered onto the scene, remaining just far enough within his men's ranks to prevent any possibility of him getting involved in a fight. "You have evaded my men for the last two hours, but it's time to put an end to this ill-advised escape attempt."

"We're not technically captured, you know. You still have to come over here and get us." Roronoa reminded him of this fact helpfully.

"A minor concern. There is nowhere else for you to go."

Brandishing his stolen swords in threateningly, the green haired one narrowed his eyes. "Oh? Try it then. Come on, I dare you."

Rolling her eyes, and wondering how a person could speak so legibly with a sword hilt in his mouth, Tashigi interrupted, "Okay, this is not productive. Why are you daring him to capture us anyway? That's the exact opposite of what we want!"

"It's not like he would. That's my point."

Instantly enraged, Rokku raised one hand to point at Roronoa threateningly. "Why you--! In mere moments I will have you in chains, and then we will see who dares to do what!"

"Only if we're in chains, though?"

"Uh…"

She heard Roronoa mutter something along the lines of "Ugh. Enough of this." She was of like mind, for once, but in the end she really didn't appreciate his solution to the issue at hand.

"Time to go. I can't take any more of this, and there's no way I'm getting captured again."

Taking a small step backwards and eyeing the four-deep crowd blocking off the only exit, she acquiesced. "Fine. Go where?"

"You can swim, right?"

Not sure she liked this new line of inquiry, she nonetheless assured him, "Of course! I'll have you know –"

"Okay. Here we go." He abruptly grabbed her by the arm and dragged her in the direction of the railing.

"Wait, are you serious?!"

Completely deadpan, his only reply was one word. "Yes."

"We're three stories up! Maybe more!"

"But we're not on the roof or anything." He pointed this out rather logically, and technically it was a true statement. "It's not that far down anyway."

Perhaps death from falling a long distance onto pointy rocks barely covered by the foaming surf would be a quick, relatively painless way to finally remove herself from this idiocy. Besides, it wasn't like she had much choice. The guards were charging forward, triggered by Roronoa's sudden movements and aiming to put an end to whatever insane actions the escapees came up with next. They probably weren't expecting the pair to dive over the railing without a single backwards glance however, because there was a strange and sudden silence left in their wake. They were probably all still standing there with their mouths hanging open like idiots when Tashigi hit the water.

------------

End Ch. 6

**Next Time – **Freedom! What the heck do we do now?

**Ending Note**: As I wrote this chapter, I finally got the scanslation of One Piece chapter 485. And… Damn. Zoro is THE most badass person of ALL TIME. No spoilers, but this chapter ranks right up there with chapter 417 as one of my favorites.


	7. Freedom! Personal Ghosts

**A/N**: Deep, heartfelt apologies for the lateness of this chapter. I have no excuse but my own lack of organization and wits.

Okay, new locale! This marks the end of the Arena Arc, and the beginning of the Island Arc. Yes, I name them. Rather unoriginally, but I do. I'm also getting more fluffy and romantic with this fic now… but I think that's entirely due to all of the FFVII fanfiction I've been reading the last couple of days. Well, maybe not entirely. I've meant to pick it up with this change in scenery anyway, since having the two of them snipe at each other is fun, but not productive. Not for shippy-ness, anyway.

**Chapter 7:**

It was quite a way to the shore of the main island, but luckily and logically both of them were strong swimmers. Devil's Fruit users aside, it didn't make much sense to make your living on the water if you couldn't swim very well.

To be honest though, the truth of the trip was more that Zoro was apparently pretty much tireless with the stamina of a charging rhino, and Tashigi refused to be shown up in any such manner as falling behind on the long swim. Besides, what was she supposed to say when she got tired? Ask him to wait or some such thing? Not a chance in Hell.

The shortest course was directly between the outpost where the Arena stood and the outcropping of the mainland that stretched in its direction, but this was deceiving in itself. A strong current ran between the two pieces of land, and the direct route ended up being much more of a challenge than originally anticipated.

The pair finally struggled ashore about a mile farther down the coast than they had been aiming for, completely exhausted, freezing and soaked. It didn't help that a sharp breeze also blew along the shoreline, adding wind chill to their problems. That and other factors made the shallow beach that they had reached was no place to spend time recuperating however, as patrols were obviously out searching for the escaped prisoners already. They had spotted several boats out while they were swimming, and now stood a much better chance of being discovered as exposed as they were on the shore.

A small cliff, probably a dozen meters high at most, blocked a quick escape father inland, but a good number of large boulders that had broken off from its face littered the beach and provided some sort of cover for the two swordsmen as they planned their next move.

Tashigi was occupied with wringing as much seawater out of her clothing as possible while trying to avoid the cutting wind, and so she didn't really notice when Zoro wandered off. When she finally took note of his absence, there wasn't much she could or cared to do about it, so she turned her attention toward drying off the sword she had managed to keep possession of somehow. She'd had the presence of mind to cover the blade just before jumping off the balcony, using the scabbard from her previous borrowed weapon. Zoro had done likewise with one of his three stolen blades, since he had only one sheath available to him. Another, the non-katana, had been lost somewhere during the swim, most likely right after their thrilling jump to near-certain death. The final one he had managed to keep a hold of as well, being forced to use his _haramaki_ sash to hold it to his back during their swim.

Due to the fact that she had hit the water shoulder first, her glasses had also survived the impact. This was incredibly fortunate, since she had serious doubts about finding replacements anytime soon, and didn't think a crash course in _ki_ reading would go over very well at the moment.

At any rate, salt water was definitely very bad news for a steel blade, and had to be dealt with in a prompt manner. Removing and inspecting the blade, she began using an almost dry corner of her jacket to begin wiping it down, hoping air drying wouldn't damage the metal too badly. She was almost done when the sound of footsteps on wet sand made Tashigi tense, her fingers clenching around her sword in surprise. Her tension turned to vague irritation almost immediately though, because Roronoa had somehow found his way back to her location and was staring back at her calmly.

Or perhaps not so calmly. He continued to stare for a few moments, and then sighed irritably before taking a couple more steps forward. He had some sort of bundle of dark cloth in his hands, which he proceeded to hold out in front of her face.

"Here."

Tashigi accepted the package, because what else was there to do? The whole situation was strange, mostly because of Roronoa's actions and attitude. A closer inspection of the gift revealed that it was, in fact, a set of dry clothing. This was a pleasant surprise, but then she had to ask.

"Where did you get these?"

"Eh, some of the guys out patrolling for us got pretty close. I took care of 'em, and didn't want to waste the opportunity."

"Wait," She held up one hand to stop his explanation in its tracks. "You attacked some more guards, unquestionably alerting them to our location, and stole these clothes from them?"

"Pretty much."

"I hope they weren't wearing these at the time."

"…"

"They were, weren't they?" She sighed, just too tired to get rightfully irate. At least being nude on a cold, deserted beach would delay their pursuers for a bit. "We have to get out of here."

"Get changed first. No sense in being cold and wet while we run, and these ought to help us blend in a little."

"Blend in if we want to walk into the middle of a group of fortress guards, maybe…" Tashigi grumbled, but she rose to her feet and moved behind another nearby boulder, Roronoa's footsteps receding in the opposite direction. At the very least she didn't think she needed to worry about him taking advantage of such a situation. Somehow she just couldn't imagine him doing such a thing.

A few minutes later, she emerged again, still adjusting her salvaged uniform belt to hold up her new trousers, since they were a bit larger than needed. Her damp clothes had been folded up and bound into a neat little package, a handy trick she recalled from her days in Marine Academy training. Zoro was already dressed and waiting, his clothes matching hers. He'd also apparently 'liberated' a length of rope, which had been put to use tying his sheathless sword across his back.

The outfit was actually rather plain, being made up of dark pants and a black turtleneck shirt. This was fairly convenient as well because the neck of the shirt served to cover up the one glaring piece of evidence that marked them as escaped prisoners as well, for the nonfunctional metal collars were still adorning both of their necks. Getting them off was an issue they hadn't managed to sort out quite yet, and so covering them up would have to do in the meantime.

Zoro glanced over her new look and grunted in what she assumed was some kind of approval. "I guess this'll have to do."

"I think it works pretty well, actually."

"For you maybe. I look like some kind of dockworker or fisherman over here." His loathing of the concept was evident, causing Tashigi to roll her eyes.

"Better that than a fugitive." She reminded him, "But there's one other thing that might be troublesome..."

"Eh?"

"That." She gestured toward his head, and the blinding green hair that was his physical trademark. One of them, anyway. "There's no way for you to disappear in a crowd of normally colored people with it."

"My hair? Well, there's nothing we can do about it, is there?"

"We could dye it…"

"No! No way am I dyeing my hair."

"Hey, with as short as you keep it, it'll grow out again in no time."

"No. Out of the question."

"Fine. It's not like we actually have any means to dye it anyway…" She paused to think again for a moment. "Maybe if we just cover it…"

Zoro immediately reached into his own pile of old clothing, folded up not quite as neatly as Tashigi's, and pulled out a black bandana. This was summarily tied around his head, neatly covering the hair under contention at the moment.

Tashigi stared at the image change for a few seconds before voicing her opinion. "Oh great. So we've gone from fisherman to serial killer."

"I'm trying here!"

"Forget it." Tashigi sighed again, with disgust this time. "Just leave it. Maybe there's a large population of green haired people on this island anyway."

With that, she turned to head towards a particularly broken looking section of the cliff she had noticed earlier. It was no doubt their best bet for getting farther inland, and standing around was only giving their pursuers more time to recoup from their various losses, textile related and otherwise.

Sure enough, they managed to find a route up the rocks and into the forest, a situation that improved Tashigi's nerves considerably. Just having a nice level of cover did wonders for such things, especially when a large governmental group was out to get you. Not that she had much experience with such situations, of course.

"Where are we headed, exactly?" Roronoa spoke up from behind her while glancing back over his shoulder, no doubt checking for signs of pursuit.

"Well," Tashigi fought her way through a particularly tough patch of undergrowth before coming upon a game trail that would make travel much easier, "We need information, first and foremost. Having things like food and shelter will also probably be helpful."

"So, we need a town then."

"Exactly." She agreed. "From what I know this is a fairly large island, so there should be plenty of them scattered around."

------------------------------------

_Meanwhile, elsewhere…_

"Hmmm. This is interesting."

"What is it?"

"Apparently some people actually managed to escape from Rokku's little enterprise."

"Really? That's new."

"Yes. It is." Sakaya leaned back in his chair, putting down the headphones he'd been using to listen in on the private channel. "He's trying to keep it quiet so he doesn't get in trouble with the higher ups."

"Heh. That always works in our favor. Morons, obsessed with looking infallible." Araki leaned against the side of the table, grinning widely. This was no doubt due to his own personal dislike of Rokku in particular.

Sakaya nodded easily in agreement. "We need to track these people down. If they've got skills enough to escape from that place, they'll be valuable to us as well…"

"I'm on it. Just tell me where to look."

-----------------------------------

_Back to the action…_

Even with such a simple and set goal in mind, they didn't make it far that first day. Though their whole bout of excitement had begun in midmorning, by the time they had actually left the Arena it had been early afternoon. Factoring in all their swimming time and then their slight pause for a change of wardrobe and it was late afternoon before they even left the beach.

Early evening crept in as they fought their way through the local flora, interacting with the fauna as well in the form of a few weird looking pig-type animals. The last of these was rather overly aggressive, and as such nominated itself to be dinner.

An impromptu camp was set up near the site of the pig-thing's last battle, secured on two sides by a pair of massive fallen trees. Semi-hidden and defensible, it was as good a spot as any to spend the night. Besides, it would have been tedious to transport food any further, and quite frankly both of them were starving by that point.

Fortunately for the hungry pair, Zoro had at some point mastered a technique to use part of a sword blade and an appropriate rock to create sparks, so their dinner even got to be cooked. There was some innate distaste for both of them in using one of their weapons, temporary or not, in such a way, but it was really unavoidable. They had nothing else but the clothes on their backs, and those weren't really conducive to starting fires or other such necessary chores.

Darkness was creeping in, and they allowed the fire to gradually die away as well. Nothing alerted the local fugitive taskforce better than a campfire in the middle of an uninhabited forest after dark, after all. Tashigi was curled up, back against the rough bark of one of the downed trees as she watched the embers fading.

"This is your chance, you know." His voice made her jump, and she realized she had been zoning out, practically oblivious to her surroundings. Was she really that tired?

"My chance?" Blinking to restore her alertness, she hoped he hadn't noticed her practically falling asleep right then. And she certainly hoped he wasn't alluding to what she thought he might be…

Leaning back against the other of their sheltering logs, he quirked an eyebrow at her. "Yeah. Your chance to just 'slip away in the night', go on by yourself. You don't need to stick with me anymore, now that we're out here."

"I don't need to, that's true." She shifted slightly, lifting her eyes to peer upwards though the canopy. Hopefully it wouldn't decide to rain on them tonight.

"So? Shouldn't you be making tracks then?"

"Hmph. You sound like you want to get rid of me." She cast her gaze back down at him accusingly. His expression was more closed than she had seen it in days, his eyes no longer meeting hers, and his next words were spoken very softly. Actually, he muttered them under his breath, and it was only because she was watching him that she managed to catch what he said.

"Maybe I do." Simple yet profound. There was that inexplicable loathing he had for her very presence once again. The last few hectic days had forced them into an unlikely partnership, but there was little to nothing keeping their old personality quirks and emotional friction at bay any longer.

"Then perhaps it's you that should be walking away." Just like always, somehow this was becoming an argument, a challenge. She really just didn't know how to talk to this man in any other way, it seemed. At least it was a good way to keep herself awake.

"No way. This is my fire, and I'll be damned if I'm leaving it for you."

"Your fire?" It was her turn to raise an eyebrow, but he ignored her. Instead, he flopped over on his side and sprawled out.

"If I wake up and you're gone, I won't come looking for you."

"I'll hold you to that."

-----------------------------

The fire had died completely over the last hour. Zoro knew that he'd have to do what he could to remove all signs of it in the morning, but for now he was just trying to get some sleep.

Amazingly enough, he couldn't quite manage to doze off either. He was used to dropping off when and where he felt like it, a skill he had spent years perfecting. He had no intention of sleeping deeply while they were out in the wilderness, surrounded by vicious wildlife and hunted by the government, but a light doze would have worked nicely.

That was another handy trick, sleeping only as deeply as he wanted, being able to remain alert for incoming dangers. Yes, quite convenient, provided he could ever actually get to sleep. He knew she couldn't possibly be so lax normally, but Tashigi had pretty much passed out only a few minutes after their last conversation. Ergo, it was entirely up to him to keep watch anyway.

Speaking of which…

He opened his eyes, casting a glance over at his companion. He had meant what he said earlier, about wanting her to leave. With no other choice he had been pushing his personal irritation and confusion to the back of his mind for days, and now it was catching up to him. Especially since the source of almost all of his distress seemed content in her own way to keep annoying him.

Perhaps 'annoy' was too weak a word. This person was reminding him of a great many things he tried not to ponder overmuch during his daily life. The way she looked, the way she acted, the way she talked. Hell, even the way she fought. She reminded him of what wasn't, and what should have been. He felt like it was cheapening his memories, the fact that he could so easily find a person who brought them back to life once again. Why had he spent so many years of his life devoted to a memory when there was a real person filling that void?

He wanted to hate her for it, but something inside him killed those feelings before they ever truly took shape. And what was left… was confusion. And loneliness, damn it all. It had been quite a while since he'd felt lonely. After all, he had his crew, such as they were, to keep him company every moment of every day. No matter how much he tried to get away. With all their noise and activity, the endless fights and antics, he rarely got a chance to think about who exactly was missing from his picture.

They weren't here now, though. It was just him and his own personal living, breathing ghost.

That clinched it, right there. He wasn't going to get a wink of sleep that night, even as tired as he was. And if there was no sleeping to be had, then there was only one other option to pass the time. Standing up and brushing off the bits of leaf litter that stuck to his clothes, he bent down to grab one of his two remaining swords. He trotted a short distance away and unsheathed the blade, pausing for a moment to consider the alien weapon before moving into a practice routine. One of the things he had heard, growing up and learning the ways of swordcraft, was that it was unprofessional to get too attached to a particular weapon. They were objects. Tools. When they reached the end of their lifespan, you were supposed to pick up a new one and move on.

He had yet to meet a real swordsman who actually obeyed this rule, however. When you hinged your life on a particular piece of metal and it served you unwaveringly for so long, it became an extension of yourself. Zoro had no problem with using other blades when the need called for it, but the only ones he would ever carry on a permanent basis were those he had chosen himself. Or ones that had chosen him.

Sentimentality was a basic part of a swordsman's nature, it seemed. And in that, he wondered if there was some sort of metaphorical issue here that he might just be overlooking.

----------

End Ch. 7

**Next Time** – Truce! Swallow your pride and get the job done!

**Ending Note**: Just like Ch. 3, this is another one where I kept changing my mind about what to do… I've come to a few decisions, so hopefully I can just roll with the tide (to use something like oceanic verbal imagery) in the next few chapters. The original characters here are plot devices only. I have no intention or desire to develop their characters beyond what I need to move the story along. It gets too complicated and stupid if I do that.


	8. Truce! Pride & Irrationality

**A/N: **Last chapter sucked. I freely admit it. Ugh, I have lost respect for myself as a writer. How sad. Fear the grumpy writer. (Cue Chapter Soundtrack: Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace & Karma Slave by Splashdown.)

Plus, I live in the damned desert and I'm FREEZING! Honestly…

**Chapter 8:**

Tashigi awoke with a start, cold and stiff. Apparently she had fallen asleep with her head on her knees the evening before, and had somehow maintained that position all night. She raised her head slowly, noting that it was still very early since the sun wasn't fully risen yet. It wasn't unusual for her to be up at such an hour, but she had the feeling that something had woken her up.

Glancing blearily around, she didn't see any obvious signs of trouble. As a matter of fact, she didn't really see signs of anything. The fire's remains had been covered with dirt and a layer of leaves, disguising its presence. Furthermore, Roronoa was nowhere in sight.

Had he just wandered off again? She hadn't pegged him as the early riser type, but then she didn't really know him at all. Then came the dilemma, which was rather unwelcome first thing upon awakening. She could get up now and head out, leaving him behind once and for all.

Or she could wait around and see if he came back, but then it became a matter of if he actually would return. He had stated clearly that he didn't desire her presence last night, so he might have just gone and left her behind. Especially since there was no longer a fire to be possessive of. On the other hand, he might have just gotten lost, and in that case waiting would be just as pointless. With the directional sense he had already displayed, she could probably send up signal flares and it would take him weeks to figure out where she was.

She rose to her feet, grabbing the sword that had been lying at her side with one hand. She took a moment to tie it to her belt, glancing around to see if Roronoa was anywhere nearby. He was nowhere in obvious sight, and there were no clues as to how long he might have been gone either. She took another few moments to strain her ears, listening for signs of human life nearby.

There was nothing.

It was officially decision time. Squaring her shoulders, Tashigi turned and strode out of the meager camp purposefully, heading in a downhill direction. Settlements would be more concentrated along the coastline, and they had traveled far enough inland the previous day to be a good distance from their landing point.

-------------------------

Perched on one of the low branches of a tree just outside of the campsite, Zoro finally started breathing again. She might have been just a normal human, but something about her made him instinctively freeze up when she started searching around for him. Even after she left he waited about ten minutes, not daring to move an inch, lest the creaking of the branch or the rustling of leaves alert her to his presence.

Once he was damned sure she was far enough away for even her senses not to be able to detect him, he leapt awkwardly down from his hiding spot. Some sort of feeling of obligation had kept him from leaving while she was still asleep, but now that she was off and on her way it was time for him to make tracks as well.

With one more glance along the path the Marine had departed in, Zoro resolutely turned and headed off in the exact opposite direction. Surely even he couldn't get lost enough to end up going exactly the wrong way. It was a foolproof plan.

---------------------------

Nearly an hour later, Tashigi's path was turning out to be more difficult than she had imagined. After fighting her way through the heavy undergrowth for roughly a mile, all the survival training from the Academy finally started to return to her. She was on the south-western slope of a nice range of hills, a location that got plenty of sun nearly all day long. Naturally the plant life would be more abundant in this direction.

It was far too late to turn around or make any other such drastic directional change, so she resigned herself to slow progress and lots of frustration. She could only hope that Roronoa was having difficulties of his own.

And speaking of difficulties, her day just wasn't getting any better. Her sharp ears detected the sounds of several people moving in her direction, trying vainly for stealth in the thick underbrush. They were apparently moving forward with the aim of encircling her, cutting her off from any escape routes.

Tashigi stopped in her tracks, one hand moving down to grip the hilt of her sword. Her stalkers paused for a moment, obviously aware that their presences had been detected. With no further need for secrecy of any sort, a group of armed men burst out of the woodlands surrounding the lone swordfighter, arms at the ready.

---------------------------

One patch of forest looked remarkably like another. Zoro normally hated that fact, but right now he didn't particularly care if he was getting hopelessly lost or not. As long as the distance between himself and the Marine Sergeant Major was increasing, he didn't care if he ended up in the bowels of Hell.

As concerned as he was with putting distance between himself and that woman, he wasn't being particularly stealthy about his passage through the forest. There wasn't much to be done about it anyway, with all the fallen leaves underfoot, but Zoro still wasn't expecting to round one particular random boulder and come face to face with a group of armed men. Furthermore, the uniforms they wore were very familiar.

His hands flashed down to his swords, drawing before the armed squad had fully registered his appearance. They had obviously heard him coming and had been lying in wait, so the group wasn't fully unprepared for him either.

In the end, it didn't matter one lick whether they had thought they were prepared at all. The squad was woefully inadequate when pitted against a master swordsman of Zoro's caliber, and he was in a bad mood too.

They were down in a matter of seconds, Zoro's two swords sliding back into their sheaths with a quiet hiss of metal on metal. Only one of them was still in speaking condition, which was exactly how Zoro had planned it. He strode over to the downed fighter, kicking the man's pistol away from his wavering grip, and grabbed the guard by the collar. He hauled him up to eye level and proceeded to make the other's existence useful.

"Yo. I've got a few questions for ya."

-------------------------

Tashigi had come to the conclusion that she had definitely picked the wrong direction to walk in. She was on her third pack of weapon wielding morons, and they seemed intent on continuing to pester her while she traveled. Perhaps she was close to a supply trail, a major thoroughfare or something of the sort. She couldn't make more than a half mile of forward progress before running into more and more guards. It was, simply put, getting ridiculous.

Not that she was having any trouble with the men, and a couple of women, who challenged her. No, they fell before her blade quickly. One after another. After another. After –

"Damn it, where are all of you coming from?!"

--------------------------

The news was not good. The little band of mooks that had just ambushed Zoro were part of a much larger establishment, made up of people loyal to Rokku here on the island. There had been a little bit mentioned about the rest of the island's politics, including various allegiances and many people in charge, but Zoro wasn't interested in that. If they got in his way, he'd deal with them. Other than that, he didn't care what people did as a hobby.

The information of actual import that he'd managed to garner was directly related to his very recent traveling and escaping companion. These people had been sent out scouting for the two escapees the day before, and had tracked them to their camp in the early morning hours. Zoro had thought that might be the case, having felt eyes on him for hours now, but they hadn't made a move before just now. Woe to be them.

Anyway, they had apparently also reported back as to the location of the fugitives somehow, though the details weren't clear. The fool was babbling rather badly, and Zoro needed a few minutes to sort out any information he got.

Furthermore, Tashigi had managed to head off in a beeline towards Rokku's mainland stronghold, and was no doubt facing down the variety of groups sent out to apprehend the pair at that very moment. A very unfortunate circumstance.

Zoro was torn. He had walked away from her, or rather made her walk away from him, with the understanding that she'd be responsible for her own hide, and he only for himself. But now, as soon as the reality of Tashigi having to duke it out with armed guards was shoved in his face, he felt a strange tremor of queasiness work its way through his gut. But he knew that she was a damned good fighter. She could definitely take on whatever they threw at her. No doubt.

But it never hurt to check…

No, wait. Checking on her was not what he was going to do. It was completely contrary to what he had promised himself, and Zoro never went back on his word. How long was he supposed to feel responsible for a person he barely knew anyway? It went beyond stupid to feel an obligation to a person just because they reminded you of a childhood friend. Who could say that he'd even feel this accountable for that same friend if she were around today?

Aw, who the hell was he kidding? Well, himself, obviously. And that never went over well. While his brain and his guts were sparring, his feet had decided to take some action on their part. And they were now headed back the way Zoro had so recently came… as far as he could tell anyway.

Ah, that was it! Even if he turned around, the odds of actually finding or running into that blasted Marine were slim to none, since he couldn't find his own way out of a paper bag. Normally that personal problem was the last thing he'd admit to, even subconsciously, but today he was damned proud of that little psychological defect. And he'd be throwing his pursuers for a loop, backtracking like that, and Tashigi'd probably clear the way for him. Not that he was going to rely on her guard slaying skills or anything. That would then allow him to storm that idiot Rokku's place and take out even more of these morons. And that would keep them from bothering him any more, and maybe he'd even get some more info or whatever in the bargain.

Zoro picked up the pace, moving into an easy trot. Yep, he'd just blow past her, mess up those guards good, and be on his way.

---------------------------------

Tashigi was on her seventh batch of overly aggressive guardsmen when he showed up. Panting from the exertion of fighting a seemingly endless stream of opponents, Tashigi couldn't' believe what her eyes were telling her when Roronoa stumbled into the small clearing where she'd taken her latest stand.

To be frank, he didn't look like he'd been expecting to see her there either. Shocked might have been the word, actually. He'd somehow managed to come up behind the group of people currently menacing Tashigi, and they were very aware of his presence.

They obviously had some training, because exactly half of them spun around to face the new threat while the others continued to advance on Tashigi. She watched Roronoa shrug in a 'what the hell, why not' kind of gesture, and then draw his swords. After that, she was a little preoccupied with parrying other blows.

By the time she managed to finish her latest batch off, Roronoa had disappeared again, but Tashigi had no intentions of letting him just walk away for the second time in one morning. No, she had plans for that infuriating man.

She found him on the bank of a small stream that fought its way through the surrounding forest valiantly. He was peering downhill toward an open patch of road that was just barely visible from their position, and didn't look up when she approached, but she was sure he knew she was there. The tensing of his shoulders, and the rest of his body, was pretty much a dead giveaway. She was mildly surprised he didn't just start running, but she'd have just chased him down anyway.

She paused and watched him for a moment, trying to come to a decision. He saved her the trouble of thinking for too long, interrupting her contemplation after only a few seconds of silence.

"What do you want?"

Taking a step closer and glancing down toward the road as well, just to have something else to look at, she had to ask. "Want?"

"Yeah. If you don't want anything, then get going. Those Arena guards have to be wise to your position by now. There'll be another group here in no time."

That was true. She needed to be putting distance between herself and the site of her most recent battle if she wanted to stay a free woman for much longer. "What about you?"

"Pick a direction and walk in it. I'll go the other way."

"Wait a minute --!"

Waving one hand lazily in her direction, he elaborated with his own brand of logic. "All you have to do is find some city and get a message out to your Marine HQ, or whatever ships they have around, and they'll come and get you. I don't think it'd be a good idea for Luffy and the rest to be around when they do show up, so I'll just go and get 'em while you do that."

Caught flatfooted by his statement, Tashigi responded in the only way she could think of. "You can't be serious."

"Why not?"

"What are you going to be able to accomplish by yourself?" She challenged, "After all, they have the rest of your crew, including your captain, captive already. And if they're capable of that…"

She saw his jaw working as he apparently gritted his teeth in frustration. So that fact had occurred to him as well, at the very least. Tashigi herself was quite concerned that Captain Smoker had been captured so easily and contained so completely. All the better reason to –

"My entire crew wasn't captured. Way back then, you saw that moron get twitchy when we asked about it. Somebody besides me is on the loose here." He pointed this out with determination.

"Even so! Obviously your best fighters have been detained already, or else we'd know about it, wouldn't we?"

"Huh. Probably. I bet Usopp got away. He's damned good at running." Roronoa muttered before shaking himself slightly. "It doesn't matter. Even if I'm the only one in a position to do any rescuing, I'll go and get them by myself."

The man's stubbornness and denseness knew no bounds. It was time for a Plan B. "Fine, even if you're arrogant enough to think you can take these people on and free your entire crew by yourself, I don't share your delusions."

He raised one eyebrow. "You're not asking for my _help_ are you?"

She felt her fists clench at her sides, but strove to remain calm in the face of his snide tone. "You know, in a situation like this…"

He snorted, now not even bothering to look at her. "In the end, you're a Marine and I'm a wanted pirate. Is it really okay for you to join forces with someone like me at all?"

"It's a little late for that, isn't it?" She paused for a moment, apparently working up her courage to continue, "After all, I wouldn't have gotten out of that Arena without your help."

He was rather surprised that she would voluntarily swallow her pride to admit that, but he wouldn't be swayed so easily. "That's not the sort of thing that your superiors are going to find out about unless you admit it yourself. If you start running around on this island with me, that's not going to go unnoticed."

That was the final straw. Here he was, smugly pointing out the exact things that had been plaguing her since she started to even consider these actions. "I don't have a choice here! I'm not like you, insane and unthinking of the consequences of my actions! I have a duty to Captain Smoker and the rest of my crew! I have a duty to the whole Navy, dammit!"

He seemed rather taken aback to hear her cursing, but she was a sailor after all. She knew many words far worse than these. That didn't stop him from continuing to dig himself in deeper, however. "Yeah, you've got a duty to all of them, and doesn't that include not working alongside criminals and pirates?"

"You…" She was actually quivering in rage. "You have no idea how much I wish I could uphold my Justice without you! But I can't! I have to admit that to myself, admit that to you, of all people. That my Justice is so weak that I have to rely on a GODDAMNED PIRATE!"

He was backing up now, fleeing in the face of her rage. Another foot or two and he'd fall backwards into that picturesque little stream, but he didn't seem to recall it being there at the moment. Tashigi didn't relent at all; she had a few more choice words for this infuriating man who was nothing but a source of continual grief for her.

"Do you think I WANT to work with YOU? Do you honestly believe that I'm willing to go against my own principles and ethics on a whim? But if I want to consider myself a human being with a modicum of loyalty I have no choice!"

His hands were up in front of him, as if to ward off her fury. "Okay, okay! I get the point!"

Tashigi's glare could have melted iron at that point, but she had herself back under control enough to remain silent and catch her breath for the next few moments. Being that angry was remarkably taxing.

Roronoa eyed her for a moment, probably checking to make sure she wouldn't bite his head off if he tried to speak before continuing again. "Honestly, you don't have to get so wound up about this. I was just checking to make sure you were serious."

He then proceeded to practically swallow his tongue at her Look. Of course she was serious. Dead serious, and if he doubted that then he'd be straight up Dead.

---------------------------------

Zoro's world was becoming a very confusing place. How he'd managed to run across Tashigi in the first place he still didn't know, and why he'd bothered sticking around after killing off her opponents he just couldn't explain. He'd done it with the initial idea of waiting until the sounds of battled ended, and then he'd be off, but in the end he had stayed put while Tashigi tracked him down once again.

And now she was asking for his help, of all things. In a situation like this, what the hell was he supposed to do? He didn't owe her anything, but simply turning her down flat couldn't be justified. He didn't think that explaining just how weird she made him feel would cut it, and he really couldn't see himself trying to tell her that anyway. Ever.

Maybe he should just go with it? At the very least, their goals were still parallel, and he hadn't a clue of where to start with accomplishing his. Since she was a Marine, surely she had some sort of skills in information gathering and whatnot that could be useful? She was, of course, an excellent fighter as well, and he had this little inclination wandering around inside his head as far as that was concerned…

He was aware of a silence stretching out between them while he tried to sort out his thoughts, but Tashigi seemed to be getting a bit calmer and more patient as the minutes passed, so he continued contemplating his options. A glance at her made him instinctively twitch, not that he showed it much.

_Damn it all, just looking at her face…_He shook his head, trying to clear his mind once again. He couldn't go on avoiding this woman because of her face! At the very least, he should take this on as a challenge to overcome this irrationality of his. Yes, most definitely that was the best choice. He needed to get over himself, get over her, and be better prepared to face her in the future. He couldn't well be the world's greatest swordsman if he kept running away from one little Marine woman, could he?

Decision made, Zoro cleared his throat and spoke up. "You want my help? Fine. I'll let you come along with me, but we'd better not have any trouble from any Marines until we're all off this island and have a good head start."

"I… will do my best to make sure that it happens that way. I can't make any promises for my superiors, but I'll run interference with them for you and the rest of the Straw Hat Crew as long as you're on this island." Her voice was quiet, reminding him of just how difficult this must be for her. Really, he had to admire her loyalty and dedication to her position and her companions. Both were traits he valued highly and strove for constantly himself. And it was just that kind of loyalty and trustworthiness that was allowing him to make this pact with her with no reservations. She had agreed to his terms, and he knew she'd do her damnedest to make sure she followed through.

At the very least, this would make it a bit easier to go and spring his idiot captain from whatever trouble he was in now…

-----------------------------

Araki watched the pair from several hundred feet away, carefully camouflaged among the branches of a large tree. Peering through a pair of binoculars, he observed them for several minutes while he contemplated his options. He couldn't tell what exactly they were talking about, his lip reading skills had never been that good, but neither of them looked terribly friendly. He was getting a few shouted words here and there as well, but not enough to tell the context of their conversation… or shouting match, whichever.

Did he really want to take them on by himself? He'd been ordered to come out there after them, but the answer was a definite 'No' for the time being. He'd watched the man lay out a group of Arena guards in seconds, and now the green haired one appeared to be made jumpy by the woman's presence. What kind of a monster was she if she had a guy like that tiptoeing around her?

_Sakaya, are you sure about this? Maybe there was a good reason they were prisoners…_Araki peered through the lenses again. They were on the move. For now, he would follow.

----------

End Ch. 8

**Next Time** – Just Passing Through! It's time to get they lay of the land!

**Ending Note**: Tashigi finally gave Zoro a real piece of her mind! And I threw some fighting in there too, just so we all don't go into withdrawal. BTW, why does chapter 6 have more hits than chapter 5? Did y'all like that one extra much or something? (Sorry, my backwoods accent slippin' in there. I actually speak very well.)


	9. Just Passing Through! Stakes & Cells

**A/N**: Really, really late. Oh well.

I like to answer reviews in some such way, but I'm finding that it makes my author's notes too long. If you want to see answers to questions you've posed in reviews or controversial statements you've made… or if you're just plain bored, go check my online journal – it's linked as my homepage in my profile. Heck, you can even ask me other questions there, get in touch with other fans, whatever. I'm on every day, so you won't rot in obscurity. Oh, and I have a handy link to the ZoroxTashigi LJ Community there - which is where all of you should be hanging out! It's lonesome with only me and two other people around!

**Chapter 9:**

The initial discussion had been brief but heated. Zoro had still been in favor of heading straight toward Rokku's secondary base and wiping out all opposition to be found there. Tashigi had been, suffice it to say, vehemently opposed to such a course of action. Her logic was that they really didn't need to be taking on small armies on a daily basis, and that they had barely escaped with their hides intact from the previous Fortress of Stupid. There was no need for an encore performance.

Zoro had felt compelled to point out that it would be an excellent opportunity to gather more information about who they'd be facing in the future. Tashigi's rebuttal had included facts such as that it was easier and less life-threatening to gather information from townspeople who might actually be willing to talk without a life or death battle proceeding. Zoro had been forced to agree at that point based on the fact that he really didn't want to talk about it anymore.

And so, they made tracks in a direction that was not toward the stronghold and the massive troop buildup, much to the confusion of those who remained at that fortress. They had opted to stay back and brace themselves for the incoming advent of two crazy people after losing nearly a dozen fighting groups to the pair. They were thus left hanging when the two psychopaths in question abruptly turned and walked the other way.

As Tashigi had previously predicted, it actually wasn't too hard to find a convenient pocket of civilization where the two swordsmen could potentially make some progress with resolving their situation. They had simply followed the road that Zoro had spotted from the site of their last fight, and it had led them a little farther down the coast to a good sized fishing village. They had encountered several groups of travelers alogn the way, but had managed to escape notice by remaining off the road proper in all such situations. The settlement the now found was conveniently big enough for the pair to disappear, but small enough that any rapidly forming law posses or vigilante mobs were likely to be of a size they could handle.

The trip had so far been made in silence, their wary alliance already being put to the test. Tashigi appeared somewhat lost in her own thoughts, likely trying to reconcile herself to a long term partnership with Zoro. He, on the other hand, was trying to work himself around to a way of thinking or mean of considering the Marine that would get rid of that nervousness she inspired in him.

Arrival at the outskirts of the town was a welcome distraction, to say the least. There was a fortified city gate with a quartet of guards inspecting all those who passed by, and a good number of civilians were apparently out and about for the day as well. Eyeing the moderately sized crowds about, the two swordsmen were suddenly faced with another dilemma as well.

"The swords…" Tashigi muttered, getting her a glance from Zoro. They were crouched down in the thick underbrush at the edge of the forest, hidden to everyone but those who would know where to look. The dark clothes certainly helped with the whole skulking about as well.

"Hn. They've got that weapons ban going on, don't they?" Zoro turned his eyes back to the people moving in and out of the gate. Indeed, there was not a single weapon in sight, though he had his suspicions about a few bundles passing through, and there were a couple of people wearing coats that were rather unseasonably large.

Well, if they could do it, so could he. Turning away from his observations, he switched his attention to the swords lying on the ground next to their feet, as well as the two bundles of clothing they had at their disposal. After a moment of consideration, he decided that his old clothes had completed a long life, and would not be missed overmuch.

Tashigi observed his activities with an air of approval, most likely because she realized that it was either this of Zoro would go out and beat up a random passerby and steal material from them. Wrapping the weapons in cloth wasn't the most ideal way of concealing them, but it was not only their sole option but it would keep them from being bothered by anyone who wasn't really determined to pick a fight. After all, Zoro looked scary enough that, given any excuse, most would-be law enforcers would just take it with the spirit of 'at least he's trying to _look_ like he's obeying the law'. Judging from the experiences they had with other members of this society, that would most likely be the order of the day here.

Once their weapons were disguised as oblong cloth covered bundles, they had to face the problem of actually getting inside city limits. The guards who were manning the main roads leading into the settlement looked suspiciously alert, so the swordsmen were forced to find an alternative means of sneaking in. This was pretty simple actually, since there were no city walls or anything, but it did involve bolting through the backyards of a few unsuspecting civilian houses and avoiding a couple of angry dogs in the process.

Leaving the cacophony of wrathful barking in their wake, Zoro and Tashigi found themselves in a narrow alley of what seemed to be a merchant district. Making tracks away from their entrance point, they headed downhill and toward the harbor area by unspoken accord. The rest of the city might be full of respectable people, but dockside areas always had a few shady characters and plenty of unknown faces.

-------------------------

Araki perched on the top of a fence, watching his targets disappear among the houses. "Huh. Welcome to my backyard."

_Grrrr_.

"Ack! Bad dog!"

--------------------------

Zoro and Tashigi were currently facing the particular predicament of where exactly to begin and with whom. Furthermore, neither of them had managed to eat anything since the night before, and vicious yet edible pig monsters were sorely lacking within city limits. Recently escaped as they were, they obviously had no money or items of tradable value to exchange for any such foodstuffs either.

The town was a fairly busy one, so it was possible to simply blend in with the crowds who were out and about during the afternoon. Luckily the 'borrowed' guards' uniforms were nondescript enough not to attract any sort of attention, allowing the pair to pass essentially unhindered through the streets.

Just being out among the public was an educational experience in itself. They had been surrounded previously with criminals, prisoners, government lackeys and pompous power-mad lechers, but none of these types were a pronounced factor of the average populace. For this Zoro was quite thankful, not really having the energy to deal with those sorts of people en masse and on an empty stomach.

Working their way through a crowd of shoppers amid an open air marketplace area, Tashigi glanced around and muttered, "What we need is a group of people willing to speak openly to a couple of strangers." She was likely just speaking to herself, but Zoro decided to reply anyway.

"Drunks are usually good for that." He offered, sidestepping a couple of oblivious women loaded down with packages. "But if we go into a bar and order water while pestering paying patrons for info, we'll get kicked out in no time."

Tashigi took a moment to step into a deserted alleyway where they could have their conversation in peace. "There are other ways to get information than just wheedling it out of drunk people, you know."

Zoro followed and took up a position leaning against one of the walls. "Yeah, you can always ask the bartender, but they tend to actually remember that you asked them…"

"I was referring to situations that do not, in any shape or form, involve bars or alcohol."

"Oh. Are there really other ways?" Zoro was honestly curious. He'd never been one for spending much time investigating in the past.

"Of course! There's…" She trailed off at this point, leaving Zoro waiting for her newest bit of wisdom.

"Well?"

"Ah, well…"

Zoro found himself grinning evilly at her sudden stammering. "Hah! You were gonna suggest contacting the local Marine base, weren't you! Too bad there isn't one here. Kinda leaves you out in the cold, huh?"

"Shut up!"

"Heh. I guess that means we gotta find some loose-lipped drunks after all." Zoro continued snickering for a moment at her expression.

Apparently disgusted with either the concept of drunk people or the fact that she'd just lost another argument, Tashigi muttered, "Lovely. I'll leave that to you then, since you're so experienced in the field."

"Damn straight." At this point, Zoro straightened up and looked around, searching... "This way." He turned to the right, down an alleyway, striding along with a purpose. Only a few moments later, they arrived at Zoro's destination.

"Shocking." Tashigi was suitably amazed. "You can't find your way out of a paper bag, but you can make a beeline for the nearest liquor vending establishment without hesitation."

"It's a gift." Zoro shrugged, shouldering the door open and motioning for her to enter. She did so, simply shaking her head and shifting the cloth covered sword across her back.

They got a few glances as they appeared in the doorway, but the two incognito swordsmen made their way to an unoccupied table quickly enough for the attention to be passing interest only. It was early enough in the afternoon that the place wasn't terribly busy, and so the crowd wasn't of a threatening size.

Now came the trick – getting info, food and maybe some booze without actually paying for any of it. Not with his own money anyway. Normally, Zoro would use his trained eye to spot a random guy with a bounty, lay him flat and 'pay' for services with the price on the poor fool's head. But seeing as this nation apparently didn't have any solid connection with the World Government, there would logically be no real way to easily cash in on bounties either. He took a moment to consider that such as situation would probably make this place a paradise for wanted men, if it wasn't already.

Well, that strategy probably wouldn't have worked anyway. Here, he was a fugitive as well, so openly attacking others would just bring the law down on his head. No, here he needed a more basic system of acquiring funds…

Well, he had to work with what was available to him. This included, in no particular order, several drunks already sprawled at the bar, his own particular wit and cleverness, his brawling skills, a pair of disguised swords… and Tashigi. Of all the things he was currently in possession of she was the one he least wanted to use, but in this case there wasn't much else to do for it.

For the sake of money, though… ugh, he was starting to sound like Nami.

"Ain't seen you guys around here before." Zoro was spared the extra work of striking up a conversation, at least. One of the guys from the bar had wandered over and dropped down, uninvited, into an empty chair at their table. Zoro could see Tashigi sizing the man up, and had to hide a grin at the look of distaste that flashed across her features.

"Eh, well, we're kinda passing through." Zoro replied lazily, trying his best to appear nonsuspicious and unthreatening.

"Passing through?" For a moment Zoro wondered if that had been the wrong kind of statement to make. "The crews from the merchant ships usually don't come this far into town. Or are you from another city?"

Thirty seconds into the conversation and they were already coming across questions they didn't' really have answers to. Of course, they could always just lie out of their asses, but what if this guy actually knew the names of the merchant ships or who crewed them? Furthermore, they didn't know the name of this city they were in. much less any within reasonable traveling distance.

Just as Zoro was beginning to sweat a little, Tashigi stepped in. "We're off a merchant crew, but we're pretty new hires as well. This is our first time to this island, so we've traveled a bit farther inland than the rest of the crew."

"Sightseeing, eh? Not much to see here, if I can say so."

"Yes, well, it's all for the novelty value." Her relaxed tone and easy manner put Zoro's lying skills to shame. Obviously this was not her first incognito assignment. Well, that would let him relax a little more himself, not having to worry about her so much.

Zoro took control back of the conversation, steering it in the correct direction. "Anyway, now that we're finally off the ship, we're looking for a little action to liven up our night. Know where to find any?"

The man leaned forward, grinning. "Action, eh? What kind of stakes?"

"Nothing too big, unfortunately. We're just merchant sailors, after all."

"Well, if you want just a little, you came to the right place. We were gettin' pretty bored around here ourselves, right boys?" The stranger turned to look at his group for a moment. A chorus of affirmative noises greeted this general question. The man then turned back to the pair of newcomers. "So, what are you puttin' up, then?"

"Hm. Well, a good question…" Zoro drawled lazily. "I suppose plain old Beri will do, but I can't really get into something over just that."

"Oh? What do you suggest then?"

"How about her?" Momentarily frozen in shock at becoming the wager of their little challenge, Tashigi recovered quickly. Waves of palpable rage began radiating from the female swordsman, which Zoro did his best to ignore.

"Heh heh. I thought you were only going for small time, but here we've got high stakes!" The man's leer was positively disturbing, but it wasn't like Zoro was going to let him collect on such a thing anyway. As if he would ever lose.

"Well, I didn't mean permanently. Just for a little while. Half an hour, perhaps? I'll take Beri in exchange, I guess." The rage now reached a blistering level, and Zoro began to wonder about his chances of surviving the next few minutes.

"Well, for that… I hope you've got a challenge in mind!"

Luckily, Zoro did. "Arm wrestling?"

"You're on!" The man clearly thought this would be an easy win. Though Zoro was obviously well muscled, the other was three times his size, with beefy biceps to match. He reached into his pocket and slammed a wad of Beri down on the tabletop, repositioning himself in his chair in the correct stance.

Zoro knew he'd have to at least make it look like he was having a little bit of trouble. After all, it never seemed to go over well when he put people's fists through the table, and they seemed disinclined to pay up quite frequently after things like that.

As it was, he did manage to put on a good show of effort, though the impending doom sensation he was getting from his companion was rather distracting. As it was, the other man's arm was flat on the table in less than a minute.

"I'll be damned, he showed you up good, eh bro?" One of the men still at the bar roared in laughter at the sight. Zoro took a moment to claim the Beri on the table, just in case someone decided to renege on their bet. His opponent was swearing and rubbing his wrist, obviously not too thrilled at being shown up like this.

The noisy one then jumped down off his bar stool and headed in their direction himself. "You handled him right out, but how about another try?"

"From you?" Zoro eyed the newcomer. This one was shorter, but rather beefier than the man Zoro had just taken care of. Still, he wouldn't be a problem, and here was a chance to increase their funds even more. "Same stakes?"

The man sat down at the table as his friend took his leave, retreating back to the bar proper. "Sure, 'cept I'm not so interested in the woman…"

"Eh?" Zoro felt a chill climb his spine at the insinuation here. Tashigi, on the other hand, had a look of something akin to joy on her face.

"Well then, I suppose it's me that you should be challenging then?" The avatar of the devil, also known as Tashigi, took instant advantage of the situation. She leaned forward, arm at the ready.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Zoro was desperate to avoid the consequences of this duel.

"Fair's fair." Tashigi's grin was absolutely sadistic. "Don't make the bet if you're not willing to pay the stakes."

Zoro felt the color draining from his face, blackness starting to close in on the edges of his vision. No! Passing out in a place like this was the last thing he wanted to do! He shook off the low blood pressure and gripped the edge of the table hard enough to crack the wood.

"Well, normally I wouldn't go for something like this, but you seem serious." The other man seemed thrilled with this new turn of events, rather understandably. He was about to win… something that Zoro didn't even want to contemplate. "Alright, I'll take you on!"

Zoro resigned himself to finding a way to run away, very quickly, from this place. He really didn't even want to fight against a person like this, and there was no way he was going to follow through on this bet. No way in hell. So, when Tashigi lost, he'd just take off, straight through the door, and abandon the evil woman there among these other psychopaths. Never looking back, that was the key.

Preoccupied as he was with grandiose escape plans, he barely noticed when the actual arm wrestling match began. Yes, Tashigi was having trouble, as expected. Her arm was inching closer and closer to the tabletop, but it was somewhat amazing that she had lasted so long anyway. At least she was trying for his sake… maybe he'd forgive her in a few decades.

Hey, wait a minute. Something was not quite right with this picture.

Tashigi's arm was inching back the way it had come, the other man abruptly put on the defensive. Zoro, and the rest of the bar, watched in absolutely stunned silence as Tashigi turned the tables and then, unexpectedly, actually won.

There was dead silence for a long moment after the thud of the back of large man's hand hitting the table faded. Tashigi freed her own hand and shook it out easily. "Ah, a good fight. Better luck next time, eh?"

"Hold on just a damn minute!" This roar of outrage came from the man that Zoro had so recently shown up in just such a manner. "I can maybe accept that green-haired shrimp layin' me out in a fair match, but a woman making a fool of Doku - he may be a freak, but he's stronger than I am!"

"Freak…?"

"Sorry, bro. Anyway, you two bastards are cheating!" The man finished this statement with one finger pointed accusingly at the pair.

"Cheating? How dare you?!" Tashigi was instantly on her feet, Zoro joining her, glad for any excuse to lay into these guys. He wondered if this had been the goal all along in Tashigi's own twisted mind?

At any rate, the group of drunks seemed willing enough to oblige. The two swordsmen found themselves being charged by more than half a dozen of them, the man Tashigi had just defeated springing up from the table and throwing the first punch as well.

As previously stated, they were not a challenge. Even without using swords, Zoro and Tashigi managed to deal with the whole gang in a very expeditious manner. This did involve a couple of broken chairs, and smashed table, and a small cut on Zoro's knuckles, but overall it was barely worth mentioning.

The fight over, it was now time to get down to the actual business that had brought them to this particular establishment. And Zoro had no intention of using one bit of his newly earned Beri if he could help it.

"Yo, barkeep!" The green haired one twisted around to address the only other remaining conscious person in the bar.

"Y-yes, sir?" He seemed rather out of sorts, but at least he was responding.

"Bring us some food and booze, and put it on this guy's tab." He gestured to one of the unconscious people on the floor with the jerk of a thumb.

"Right away!" Zoro dropped back into his chair with a sigh as the bartender scurried into the back.

"Is the 'booze' really necessary?" Tashigi muttered, also returning to her seat and straightening her clothes.

"Damn straight it is." Zoro grumbled back, leaning forward on the table, "Can't have a bar fight without liquor involved, can we?" And on top of that, he really just wanted some damn alcohol after this whole scenario.

Tashigi shrugged, that evil gleam still somewhat present in her eye. "Well, if that's the case…"

-----------------------------

_Meanwhile, elsewhere…_

The situation was utterly unacceptable. It had been nearly a week, and they were all still locked up in these cells, awaiting some sort of punishment. Or perhaps just being locked up like they were, with the company they had, was supposed to be punishment enough.

That might have been true for the Marines, who had all looked somewhat the worse for wear, but Nami was used to this and more from the group of idiots she sailed with. Of course, and extremely bored Luffy was never a good thing, but the Seastone of his cell was actually keeping him fairly quiet.

The only recent bit of excitement was that the aforementioned Marines were now relocated elsewhere. That had been something of a relief, as that Captain with the Devil's Fruit powers had been, quite frankly, giving her the creeps for days now. He spent _hours_ glaring at Luffy, as if somehow trying to find a way to blame his imprisonment on the young pirate. Of course, it may have just been Luffy's admittedly somewhat strange antics, which his crew was essentially numbed to but were probably still disturbing to others.

At any rate, she could do without that kind of company. It allowed them to be much freer about discussing escape possibilities, among other things, as well. This wasn't to say that there appeared to be many chances for breaking out of this place, since they had taken great pains to limit the abilities of the crewmembers. Such was the fate of people with bounties on their heads, she supposed – everyone and their mother knew who you were and mostly what you were capable of.

Sanji, for example, had his feet securely chained, and furthermore was attached to a loop in the floor far enough away from the walls to prevent him from landing any sort of solid hit on them. Robin, like Luffy, was held in captivity simply by the presence of the Seastone. Nami, of course, didn't have any insane fighting abilities that could have demolished her surroundings and facilitated escape, but they had made sure that she had no access to the lock of her cell door either. Not that her lock picking skills were incredibly developed, but given enough time she might have been able to manage something. But instead, a solid metal plate around the lock prevented her from being able to reach it from inside her cell.

Of course, it was kind of surprising that information in such detail would have reached a backwater little island like this one already. Suspicious, even. Had they been expected and thus thoroughly researched beforehand? If that was the case, getting out of this prison and getting their ship back was going to be even more difficult than originally planned.

The navigator was broken from her rain of thought by the door leading into their holding area opening to admit several men. This was an even that occurred on a regular basis, but the particular people that had just showed up were certainly more interesting than the average mooks that had been seeing to them as of late.

A well dressed man with dark shadows around his eyes led the group, his dark suit nearly blending into the shadows around him. Jut behind him was a person who was obviously a fighter. The man had more scars than skin, and appeared to be missing his left eye. He was wearing a long jacket, but loops of chain were visible and audible from underneath the cloth. The third and final person to enter remained obscured by those two for a minute, but when he finally emerged into Nami's field of vision, she was honestly confused.

"A Marine?"

-----------

End Ch. 9

**Next Time**- Kajou & Miki! The past is revealed!

**Ending Note**: Heh heh. Poor Zoro. I couldn't resist the chance for extreme hilarity. I was cackling like mad while I wrote that bar scene. Oh, and another chapter will be flying up very shortly. Be somewhat more patient.


	10. Kajou & Miki! In the Falling Rain

**A/N**: Nya. Well. I didn't manage to get this chapter out nearly as fast as I'd hoped (or promised). Well, a great many things happen on a daily basis in my life, and I do my best to work around them. So, enjoy it while it's fresh. And thank whatever gods you pray to that it's actually done. I know I am. Freakin' 11 pages long…

**Chapter 10:**

The pair of swordsmen left the bar fairly quickly, sticking around only long enough to finish off their meals. Zoro was against the idea initially, wanting to take full advantage of the free food for as long as possible, but Tashigi's paranoia about the local lawmen getting wind of their actions spurred them into motion after all. That, and it kind of looked like that Doku guy was starting to wake up, which abruptly made Zoro just as eager to leave.

Out on the streets once again, there was little else to do but get the lay of the land until nightfall. By common and tacit agreement, the actual events leading up to the bar fight were not discussed. Zoro chose to simply take this as more of a warning for his future actions. Tashigi was not a woman to be underestimated, and apparently she was capable of giving as good as she got. That particular mistake was not one he would be making again in the near future.

What they found in their explorations was a fairly normal town, as far as places on the Grand Line went, filled with average people. There was an almost palpable undercurrent of some sort of tension in the air however, and it appeared that they were being pegged as outsiders on sight. No one was outright avoiding them or chasing them off or calling the city guards, but conversations had a way of suddenly dying off and suspicious glances abounded when the two of them came near. Obviously the place wasn't xenophobic enough for travelers to be unheard of, but people just as clearly didn't come and go absolutely freely from this place either.

They had migrated downhill over the course of the afternoon, and found themselves at the wharf proper at one point. There were quite a few ships around, but most were shallow water fishing vessels, indicating short distance travel only. The scattering of merchant ships all carried a similar design and markings, indicating some sort of controlling organization involved in the local commerce. And finally, the few obviously non-local ships were gathered in one particular area, and appeared to be under heavy watch.

The weather, though threatening, managed to hold out through the evening. Zoro, even with his own admittedly limited weather sense, knew that rain was in the offing in the near future. That didn't stop him from sincerely hoping that it would at least wait until the next day, since he really didn't want to try sleeping outdoors in a rainstorm. He'd slept through worse, it was true, but that didn't mean he enjoyed waking up soaking wet.

And sleeping outdoors was what they'd be doing, apparently. The cash they'd won in their bar challenge had initially appeared to be a decent sum of money. Normally, it would have been enough to get them one more meal and a pair of rooms in a lower end establishment.

Unfortunately, there was something extremely fishy about the economy on this particular island. The term 'inflation' didn't even cover it. Though their currency was still the universally known Beri, its value was approximately one tenth of the norm. How exactly this worked, Zoro wasn't sure, but Tashigi had implied something about a control of outgoing funds by those ruling this nation. Basically, the peasants paid ten times the price, while their overseers bought at normal rates from other countries. The only conclusion that could be reached was that those guys up top were making out like bandits with this scheme.

During the course of the day, they had split up several times to cover more ground, and Zoro had made excellent use of his time in his own opinion. The fact that Tashigi was willing to let him roam by himself may have implied something else about how tolerant she was of his company, but they'd managed to team back up every time so far. But even with all their wanderings for the day, they still hadn't managed to scrounge up any more money than could buy them a little bit of food for the evening hours. Where exactly that cash had come from Zoro wasn't willing to admit to his companion, since he had a feeling she'd object to alleyway brawls and ensuing wallet thefts. Too bad most back street fighters were broke.

Luckily the merchant areas were pretty much deserted in the evenings after most of the shops closed. People were either migrating home for the night or heading more towards the areas of town likely to hold taverns and whatnot. As nice as it would have been to follow their lead, Zoro found himself taking up residence on the roof of a particular warehouse type building for the night. This place was ideal, or as close as they were likely to get, because not only did it have a nice overhang to keep any potential weather at bay, but it was far out of the line of vision of the average wandering person, including those pesky city guards.

They had run across several groups of said guardsmen during the day, but had been quick to duck out of sight around buildings and such. The men hadn't seemed particularly alert either, which was rather perplexing. After all the chaos they had endured to arrive at this place, it would have been logical for the law enforcers in the nearest town to be alerted and on the watch for them as well. This didn't seem to actually be the case, but neither Zoro nor Tashigi was willing to take the chance of having misread the situation. Therefore, avoiding notice was the name of the game.

"Staying outdoors again…" Tashigi had finally made her way up onto the rooftop as well. "I'm having flashbacks to basic training. I haven't really camped out much since then."

"Well, it couldn't have been that long ago." Zoro dropped down onto the rooftop under the overhang, making sure he was reasonably centered underneath the shelter.

"It feels like ages though." She sat down and then peered up at the sky, just as Zoro had been doing moments before. "We really couldn't do better than this?"

"Hey, I didn't see you volunteering any particularly cozy looking spots for the night." Zoro commented while generously gesturing for her to settle in on a convenient piece of roof tile next to him.

"Well, you know…"

"Feh. Whatever. It doesn't bother me." Zoro leaned back against the wall, hands behind his head.

"I'm sure. You're just a poor pirate, after all. I'll bet you're quite used to sleeping in the elements." She curled up, much like she had the night before, with her arms around her knees and her back against the side of the building.

He laughed a little at her statement, which was obviously not the reaction she had been expecting. "That's true. Sometimes even when I don't want to. It must be nice to be a Marine and have guaranteed food and shelter pretty much anywhere."

"It is one of the perks of the job, but it wasn't high on my list of reasons for joining. I'm not that shallow."

"Oh, I see. Excuse me for not particularly enjoying hypothermia and starvation." Before she could snap back, he went on to ask a question that had occurred to him a while ago. "Why did you sign up with the military then, with your high ideals?"

Her answer was instantaneous and appeared somewhat well worn. "I joined the Marines in order to have pride in my skills, to use my blade for the good of those around me."

"Oh? So you didn't or couldn't get satisfaction from your skills without the recognition of a government organization?" He snorted in incredulity, "Somehow I don't believe that. There's no way you could have already mastered swordsmanship without having cherished those talents for many years."

"Like you would know." It may have been his imagination, but there seemed to be some bitterness in that statement.

"Of course I would. You think just because I'm a pirate that I don't take pride in my skills?"

"Bounty hunter _turned_ pirate." Tashigi shook her head. "It's such a waste, and so frustrating!"

Zoro quirked one eyebrow in confusion. "Well, I can't say anything about what you choose to be frustrated by, but a waste? How do you figure?"

"Skills like yours could be used for so many other, better purposes. That you're using them for a life of crime…" She sighed somewhat dramatically, dropping her chin down onto her knees.

"Hmph. Being a bounty hunter isn't actually a crime, you know. As a matter of fact, you could say that it's a failing of the Marines and the World Government that that job field even exists." He relished this particular bit of logic that he had been saving up specifically for her.

"What?!" Her reaction did not disappoint his expectations.

He took a moment to collect his thoughts before replying to her angry outburst. Plus, it was fun to watch her stew in insulted irritation. "Well, think about it. If you guys were actually adept at catching all those criminals, you wouldn't have to put prices on their heads and rely on guys like me to hunt 'em down for you. For those years I was a bounty hunter, the Marines were paying my living expenses just as much as they were yours."

She blinked, this particular viewpoint obviously having never occurred to her previously. "Are you implying that I should consider bounty hunters some sort of… free agents for the Marines?"

"Why not? That's actually a pretty good way of describing it, I think." He glanced out over the city for a moment. "Well, at any rate, that doesn't change the fact that I'm most definitely a criminal nowadays, since I'm a pirate."

"Thus the wasting of talent on a criminal lifestyle."

"You Marines as an organization have your own issues." Zoro felt compelled to point out before continuing, "Besides, It's not like I'd ever really considered joining the military. I'm not the kind of guy who likes to take orders."

"So says the man who calls an incredibly dangerous yet unbelievably stupid man 'Captain'."

"Well, Luffy isn't really much of a 'giving orders' type." Zoro explained, "And I'll say this – the few times he does, I'm glad to go ahead and listen, because there's a damned good reason for it."

The conviction with which Zoro made that statement actually gave Tashigi a moment of pause. "You place a lot of faith in him."

"Faith? Not the word I'd use, but… whatever." He took a moment to consider the rest of his crew, and their current condition, before continuing, "It doesn't make sense to follow a person you don't trust. And after all, don't you have a lot of 'faith' in your Captain Smoker?"

She didn't respond to that directly, instead choosing to change the subject once again. "How exactly did you make the transition from bounty hunter specializing in catching pirates to being a pirate yourself?"

He shrugged, deciding to give the simplest answer. "Luffy asked."

The answer had obviously left her stunned. "He asked? He just asked, and you decided right there that you'd quit hunting pirates and become one?"

"There were… extenuating circumstances. The details don't really matter, but I didn't do this on a whim. I had my reasons."

"I'm sure." Her voice held quite a bit of sarcasm, not something he really would have expected from her. "Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter, since you apparently don't want to tell me anything else."

"About as much as you'd like to tell me the real reason you decided to join the Marines, I imagine."

"I suppose we'll just leave it at that, then." She was obviously still irritated, but his reply had apparently made her more unwilling to continue the conversation as well.

Zoro simply nodded, the wear of the last few days was starting to catch up to him, and unlike the young Marine he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the night before either. There was a limit to how far his own stamina and stubbornness could take him after all, it seemed. All this talking was giving him a headache anyway.

That being the case, he settled himself in for the night, lying casually back on the roof tiles with his arms crossed behind his head. As he closed his eyes, he listened to the soft sounds of Tashigi settling herself into a more comfortable position nearby. It seemed like she was planning on staying awake for a while longer. Well, that was fine. She could keep watch tonight, since he'd been up the entire night previous.

Unlike the previous night, it didn't seem that unconsciousness was going to be particularly elusive. Perhaps it was because his situation was so much more sorted out, and therefore there wasn't too much to overly occupy his thoughts. Of course, it mostly helped that he didn't need to worry about Tashigi much anymore. It was odd, but that was really what had made sleep impossible earlier. His crew he wouldn't bother losing sleep over – as he'd repeatedly asserted, they could take care of themselves for the most part. Hell, they might figure out a way to spring themselves out of this situation before Zoro ever managed to step in. That would be convenient, but it would make his agreement with Tashigi come to an abrupt and unexpected end.

As sleep started creeping in at the edges of his consciousness, Zoro vaguely wondered what exactly his temporary partner would do in such a case. Would she stick with him until they safely escaped from this island, or would she immediately turn on him in favor of her Marine comrades? Well, she'd promised to help him, and it only seemed right to return the favor. So, even if Luffy and the rest managed to get loose, Zoro decided he'd remain until Tashigi's crew was free as well. After all, those people were just as important to her as the rest of the Straw Hats were to him.

------------------------------------

By the time they really got started the next day it was mid morning, but the sky was still quite dark. It hadn't actually rained the night before, much to their shared relief, but it was still seriously overcast. This worked in their favor to an extent, making it easier to slink around inconspicuously. The reason for their late start was also partly due to the consuming gloom of the day, the lack of bright sunlight having led to a bit of oversleeping on both of their parts. All their running around was rather energy consuming though, and they hadn't had much in the way of food and whatnot in days, so they could likely be excused for their sleeping late. At least no one had bothered them during the night.

They spent most of the rest of the day moving around to various high traffic areas, hunting for general information on the state of this particular nation. From what they gathered as far as public notices, newspapers and general overheard conversations were concerned, they became aware of what was essentially a dictatorship in place. Though the country was ruled by a king, as many Grand Line nations seemed to be, another man was running the country, with an assortment of powerful allies at his back and call to keep the citizens in line. Furthermore, this appeared to be a recent development, as in within the last couple of years.

The general muttered sentiment of the people Zoro and Tashigi eavesdropped on was that there was something terribly wrong, that the King would never have simply allowed such men to overtake his country willingly. Though the King was still present and apparently in power, no one had seen him for months, though dictates were still handed down from his office on a regular basis.

What truly would have been helpful at that point were specifics on the men in charge. For example, who they were, where they lived, the basis of their power and so forth. Unfortunately, common folk rarely have access to such intimate details as to the lives of their rulers, and this time was no exception to that fact. There was, in aside, some mention of a pair of crazy criminals having escaped from the Arena, which was a nearby source of entertainment for a chunk of the local populace. A few had even been present for the event, but the story had been passed around so often, and frequently in situations involving alcohol, that the details were quite fuzzy. For example, people couldn't seem to come to a consensus as to what those two terrifying people actually looked like.

When the first droplets of rain finally began to fall, it just seemed to perfect accent to the whole situation so far. Concerned as they were with staying out of the public view as much as possible and not having funds for other forms of shelter, it took the pair of swordsmen a few minutes to find a reasonably secluded awning to take refuge under. Zoro pressed himself flat against the bricks of the building behind, giving Tashigi as much space as physically possible. Even if he was traveling with her that didn't mean he wanted to be touching her or anything.

The sounds of raindrops impacting the cloth overhead were almost enough to drown out other sounds there on the street. Almost, but not quite. In unison, the two fighters abruptly turned their heads to peer back along the narrow alleyway adjacent to their shelter spot.

"Someone's back there." Tashigi commented, cocking her head to one side and listening intently.

"No kidding."

"It sounds like…" She trailed off, frowning, as Zoro pushed of the wall and stalked out into the downpour, heading towards the source of the commotion. Whatever had gotten her irritated this time, it didn't stop her from immediately moving to follow him between the buildings.

Hands shoved deep into the pockets of his pants, Zoro rounded the corner and stepped further into the shadows between the structures. The issue at hand was immediately apparent, and he sighed in annoyance. Couldn't he go for half a day without having to stand up for some woman or another?

Well, woman may have been too strong a word. The person in question was little more than a girl, and looked positively petrified. This was understandable surrounded as she was by three large, unfriendly looking men. Furthermore, the men in question were wearing some very distinctive uniforms, marking them as members of the city guard that Zoro and Tashigi had been working hard to avoid all day. They were obviously off duty, their uniform jackets being either unzipped and hanging loose or tied around their waists despite the rain, and there was something of a drunken air hanging around them as well.

"C'mon little lady, just for a while."

"Yeah, after all, where would you be without all of us to protect you and the rest of this crappy little town?"

"Heh, you pretty much owe us a little of your time for that service, right?"

The petrified young woman just barely managed to stammer out, "I-I need t-to go home…"

"Home, huh? You live at that ratty little bakery around the corner, don't ya?"

"Yeah, that place. I bet if someone actually went in and inspected it they'd shut it down in no time."

"Or maybe something a little worse… accidents do happen, you know."

"W-wait! I…"

Zoro was aware of Tashigi just behind him, already whipcord tense and no doubt dying to jump into the fray at a moment's notice. He was about fed up with the whole display himself, and took a step forward toward the action.

He didn't get a chance to lay into the morons in front of him quite yet though, for yet another person chose that moment to dive in, appearing from over a nearby rooftop and dropping down between the men and the young woman. This would have been a much more intimidating display of athletics had the person in question not been about twelve years old as well.

"Oi, retards! Back off!"

One of the men actually took a step back in surprise, but went no further. "The hell--?"

One of his companions snorted in derision. "A shrimp. Tch. How annoying. Run home short stuff, we're having an adult conversation here."

Utterly unintimidated, the boy sneered back, "Adult conversation? Sounds to me like you're making asses of yourselves and picking on a girl half your age."

Zoro shook his head, smiling a bit at the display. An excellent sentiment, but the kid was one quarter the size of the errant guards and had no apparent weaponry on his person. People like that didn't live long unless they got a clue really quick.

Speaking of which, the guardsmen were obviously not amused by such a show of bravado. Drunk as they were, the men were professional soldiers and reacted accordingly. If their movements were slow and clumsy, they still had the upper hand against an untrained child who was backed into a corner.

"Isn't it sad that the people she needs saving from here are the ones supposed to be protecting the city?" Zoro flinched as Tashigi's voice cut through the falling rain, irrevocably involving the both of them in this fight. And the element of surprise was totally gone as well.

Well, it wasn't like he was going to just sit back and watch while this happened anyway… maybe it was more the tone she had used to call the morons out? Yes, most likely. It was a very familiar sound to him, since he'd heard it directed at himself more than once. Hopefully the drunks found it just as terrifying.

Cracking his knuckles threateningly, Zoro stepped forward, Tashigi by his side in the advance. The other five people present stared at the intruders, though the heavy shadows most likely hid their features. This was a good thing, since though Zoro wasn't going to stand back and ignore this he really didn't want a massive manhunt launched as punishment for doing a good deed.

The frozen surprise didn't last for long, as expected. The guardsmen, now with a pair of much more threatening targets in view, were reacting much more aggressively. Two of them charged forward, weapons swinging, obviously intent on taking out the two apparently unarmed interlopers. From what he saw of their technique, Zoro knew he didn't even need to pull out his two swords – his fists would be enough for this job.

Interestingly, Tashigi apparently reached the same conclusion. He'd never really seen her fight hand to hand, since the bar fight had been a flurry of action, but he recalled her assurances of her own abilities in that regard. Indeed, she had a pretty good uppercut, which one of the men got a very close up view of.

The third man, after watching his friends being laid out near instantaneously by to random people, turned on the less threatening people present, with one standard method in mind. He was quite quick for a drunk, and managed to grab the girl by one shoulder. Zoro growled in irritation at her lack of initiative. She should have run away or hid or _something_ while all this was going on, but she'd just stood there. And now the situation was just that much more annoying.

"Stop! Back off now or something unfortunate will happen to the girl!"

"Taking hostages now?" Tashigi's _ki_ was practically visible now, enflamed by the sight of such base tactics. It was truly something to behold, and Zoro was quite impressed.

"Let Miki go!" While Zoro was admiring such a nice battle aura, the least effective fighter present decided to go ahead and get involved. Fists flying, the boy lunged towards the last remaining guardsman.

The man didn't hesitate, and appeared not to hold back either. He swung his weapon – some sort of heavy club – into the child's ribs, swatting him aside and sending the youngster tumbling.

Taking the distraction for what they could, both Zoro and Tashigi darted forward, fists at the ready. Before the man could reset his arm from that first swing, he was joining his two buddies on the muddy ground.

So, yet another good deed had been added to Zoro's karma score for the week. He only hoped that this wouldn't come back to bite them directly, since they'd been working so hard to avoid notice, and therefore recapture, for the last few days. Well, at the very least with the darkness, the rain, and their inebriation, they probably never really saw who hit them.

With their opponents sprawled out in the rain puddles, Zoro turned to glance at the two youngsters. The girl had apparently gathered her wits somewhat, and was currently helping the boy to his feet. For the boy's part, though he was still clutching his stomach and wheezing a bit he appeared not to be seriously injured. That was good, because Zoro wouldn't have had any pity for him if he'd gotten mangled doing something so stupid.

"Th-thank you." The girl managed, at least, to bow politely to them, while her friend was still working on catching his breath.

"Yeah, whatever. Just go home and try not to get into any more trouble on the way." Zoro grumbled and turned to head out of the alleyway, back the way they had come so shortly before.

Tashigi muttered something under her breath, giving the unconscious men one more glance before moving to follow him. She was obviously still irate about the blatant abuse of power and position she had just witnessed, and thus wasn't paying much attention to the others present. At least she wasn't going to give Zoro any trouble about leaving.

"Tch. All that trouble for guys that weak." Zoro muttered at a level that just Tashigi could hear, "And now we're really soaked."

-----------------------------------

Over an hour later, it was still raining in torrents and the afternoon was steadily wearing away toward evening. In the interests of not drawing attention to themselves by hanging around in one spot for too long, and also from the viewpoint of 'fleeing the scene', the swordsmen had opted to move several times, trading one marginally dry spot for another some short distance away.

Currently they occupied the stoop of an older looking building a few doors down from a brightly lit tavern. Zoro was at the moment considering possibilities for getting into the aforementioned establishment and acquiring more food and possibly lodgings, but wasn't sure how he'd manage since Tashigi was sure to be on her guard from now on. And he didn't want to give her another chance to turn that particular technique against him again. At least that little scrap earlier had given her a chance to vent some frustration.

"This is ridiculous." Tashigi finally broke the silence a few minutes later, "We can't stay out here all night."

"No kidding." Zoro answered shortly, none too thrilled with their current state.

Tashigi sighed, leaning back against the doorframe. "We're really not making much progress, are we?"

Settling back and turning to face her, Zoro replied, "I dunno. We've made it into a town with lots of people, we're not actually starving right now, and we're not technically out in the rain."

"Ah. Success through a matter of degrees, I see."

"It's all in how you look at it, really." He explained seriously.

She pondered that for a moment. "Funny, I wouldn't have pegged you as an optimist."

Zoro shrugged lazily, which served as a convenient means to work muscles that were tensing up from the chill. "Eh, well, I've been through worse."

"It's amazing you're still alive."

"Hey." The voice broke though their conversation, such as it was, causing both of them to swivel to stare at the new speaker. It was hard to make out the details due to the encroaching darkness, the heavy rain and the large coat the person wore, but the voice and the form were familiar.

"Oh, it's the brat from earlier." Zoro had a flash of insight, abruptly recognizing the person before him.

"Who's a brat?!"

Casting a glance at her curt companion, Tashigi stepped in. "Sorry about him. I'm glad to see that you're alright after that fight earlier."

"Yeah, no problem. It'd take ten times that kind of damage to take me down!" He puffed out his chest in a show of machismo for a moment before apparently remembering something. "So, why are you two sitting out here like this?"

"None of your business."

Tashigi sighed and shook her head at Zoro's bad attitude, but didn't get a chance to say anything before the youngster spoke once again, a sly grin marking his features this time. "You guys don't have anyplace else to go, do ya?"

"That is pretty much the case." Tashigi admitted before Zoro could come up with any more snide commentary.

The kid's eyes lit up, "Great! Come with me, then!"

"What? Why should we follow you anywhere?" Zoro's stubbornness came directly to the front.

"Well, maybe because my Mom owns the inn just down the street? Come on, I owe ya for helping me protect Miki earlier. If I tell her about that, I'm sure Mom'll at least give you guys some dinner. It'll be better than sitting out here in the rain, right?"

Indeed, just about anything would be better than staying outside, and the promise of free food just clinched the deal. Leaving their temporary shelter to follow the boy down the street, both of the swordsmen were instantly soaked once again, a situation made worse by the fact that now that the sun was down the rain was acquiring a sharp chill to it. Needless to say they made a good pace towards the busy inn, but were slightly surprised when the youngster didn't lead them to the front entrance. Instead, he trotted off around the back of the building, gesturing for them to follow.

They came to what was apparently the kitchen entrance and were led inside quickly. The boy was glancing around very suspiciously, giving Zoro a few new qualms about the situation. That didn't stop him from following the brat inside, since he wasn't too keen on the idea of staying out in the rain any longer that night.

Indeed, when the door was opened and the swordsmen were ushered inside they found themselves in the back of a kitchen area, mercifully unoccupied at the moment. That state didn't persist for very long, however.

"Kajou! There you are! What were you doing outside at this time of night?" A voice called from another room, accompanied by the sounds of footsteps approaching.

The brat instantly replied, his tone quite chipper. "Just picking up some street bums, Mom."

"Bums?" Zoro muttered under his breath, raising one eyebrow as he tried to shake some rainwater from his sleeves.

"What are you…?" A middle aged woman appeared through the kitchen doorway, stopping in her tracks at the sight of a pair of dripping wet strangers in her home, standing just behind her son.

"Ah, hello ma'am. We're sorry for the intrusion…" Tashigi elbowed Zoro rather sharply in the side at that point, as he was still more concerned with drying himself off and observing his surroundings than making polite introductions.

"Eh, hi." That was about all she was going to get out of him as far as greetings were concerned, in the end.

"These are the guys I told you about earlier – the ones who beat the crap out of those city guards that were bugging Miki." The young man, Kajou apparently, further explained. "I figured they'd be nearby, so I went looking for 'em."

"Well," The woman relaxed somewhat, now that she knew they weren't random weirdoes from some alley, "We do need to thank you for that, and for protecting Kajou from those men as well."

"I didn't need protecting…"

Ignoring her son, the woman took another step forward, sizing up her two newest visitors. "I must say, from what I had heard from the youngsters, I was expecting people with a more frightening appearance."

"Ehm, well…" Tashigi was apparently going to attempt some sort of explanation, but Zoro decided to stick with his own tried-and-true 'keep quiet and stare' response. He wasn't in a very friendly mood at all that evening.

"No matter. It's good that Kajou found you, so that we can repay you kindness properly. We couldn't very well leave you two out in the rain on a night like this, even if you hadn't helped Miki!"

Zoro began to wonder how such a soft hearted person managed to remain in the business of running an inn at all, but didn't get very far in his ponderings. They were ushered out of the kitchen proper and, once again, to a place Zoro didn't expect. He'd anticipated being mixed in among all the customers in the front room, being given a table or a couple of bar stools and some food. Instead, they were herded into another, smaller room that appeared to be part of the private residence section of the building. A small, well worn table and chairs and an equally ancient looking china cabinet were pretty much the only furniture in it, but at least that didn't give an ambushers convenient places to hide.

And that was the crux of the problem right there. This whole situation, being thanked and rewarded for helping out a random stranger, was nice. It was convenient. It was really, really suspicious. Zoro had this seriously paranoid feeling that these people had freaked out when the realized the amount of trouble they'd be in for being involved in the alley fight incident, and were now making good with the government by leading the two responsible parties into a trap. The one thing he found himself not regretting this day was teaming up with Tashigi – she was proving a surprisingly capable partner, though her whole Absolute Justice things still kept getting in the way entirely too often.

Well, at least he and Tashigi had a few tricks up their rain dampened sleeves. Those kids hadn't seen them pull their weapons, so hopefully whoever came after them would underestimate their fighting capabilities.

Well, that would just be the perfect end to a very, very long day anyway, so Zoro determined to wait and see where this latest turn would take them. One more fight or one more free meal, either way it was a win-win situation from Zoro's point of view.

---------

End Ch. 10

**Next Time – **Memories! Even though you're no longer here, your spirit lives on!

**Ending Note**: MORE PERVERTS! Why do I write so many…? Most of next chapter will likely be flashback as well… I know you're all here for the ZoroTashi-ness (or most of you anyway), but I'm writing a One Piece fanfic here, and I like to keep with the One Piece theme as much as possible. And that includes, unfortunately, at least a couple chapters of angsty backstory for random people who are important in that particular arc.


	11. Memories! The Five Year Story

**A/N**: Here we go again. Ah well, #11 is a lucky number, so hopefully this one rolls off the press like it was born for the job. Which it was. This came out late due to a sudden and debilitating bout of illness on my part, possibly food poisoning. I really just wanted to die for about 6 hours straight… always when I'm on vacation or have somewhere extremely important to be, dammit!

**Chapter 11:**

As soon as they were left alone and he was reasonably sure their hosts were out earshot, Zoro turned to Tashigi, eager to voice his immediate and serious concerns. After all, with her sort of nature she likely hadn't actually considered the possibility of an ambush from people like this. Crossing his arms over his chest and narrowing his eyes, he spoke. "You know, she's taking this awfully well. We did beat up some government officials in a nearby alleyway, and we're escaped convicts."

Tashigi did indeed give him a slightly confused stare for a moment before replying. "She probably doesn't know about the 'convicts' part, but it is true that the fact that we've seriously disobeyed the law doesn't seem to be bothering her much at all." The female swordsman admitted, "Do you think there's something more going on here?"

He nodded shortly. "A trap, maybe. To send a kid out to bring us in, offer us food and lodging. She's probably calling the cops as we speak, and they'll pounce as soon as we let our guards down."

"Hmm. Well, even if that is the case," And it did seem likely at that point, "We should take what we can get out of the situation. We can always run if they show up, and if she's really working with them they already know our position anyway. And if she's not…"

"Yeah, I guess we should at least get a meal out of this." Zoro admitted, since he didn't think poison was really the common mode of fugitive capture in most parts. "And some time to dry off would be nice. Maybe we can stay until it stops raining."

"Might as well try for that." With that decided, the two of them took another few moments to observe the room they'd been left in. No surprises there, but the muffled din of a crowd of customers in the front room became more apparent in the silence. Zoro took a few more steps forward, shaking a little more water from his clothes. 

"Well, at least they shouldn't try anything against us directly. Not without a good number of armed men, anyway."

"What makes you so sure? An ambush works best with the fewest people possible involved." Tashigi moved to one side of the room, checking out a second doorway that apparently led more toward the front of the building.

"I don't think they'd have the guts to come up against me with anything less than a small army." He replied confidently.

"Since when do you inspire that kind of terror in random people? If they knew who you were maybe, but these people should be pretty much clueless from what we've seen."

He turned to her seriously. "I'm a pretty intimidating guy."

She sniffed derisively. "To the uninformed, I suppose."

Zoro, of course, found this statement innately amusing. "Uninformed, eh? So you don't think so?"

"The only things scary about you are your supposed wit and the absolute horror of your directional sense."

He couldn't help but snicker at this statement and the tone in which it was delivered. "I guess you _would_ say that. After all, when we first met you decided I just looked hungry." He knew he had taken a gamble mentioning that whole incident, but she didn't hackle up at the memory as he had expected. 

"You did, at the time." She pointed out, "You also looked dirt poor."

"Eh, well, best to look the part if you're living it." Zoro shrugged, leaning backwards in his chair. The conversation didn't get a chance to go any further however, as their host chose that moment to return.

The woman, Kajou's mother, walked in carrying two plates of food as well as some folded cloth that was hanging over her forearm. "Here's the meal I promised you, eat your fill. And I've brought some dry clothes for you two as well, since you're both soaked through."

"Er, thanks." Tashigi, despite the bluffing powers she had demonstrated back at the bar the day before, was apparently at a loss as to how to be nonchalant about potential betrayal of trust. 

Apparently ignorant of the tension from the two swordsmen, Kajou's mother continued, stepping over to the table and putting the plates down. "I hope this will do, it's the same thing we're feeding the rest of our customers tonight."

Zoro raised one eyebrow after a look at the clothes he was abruptly handed a moment later. "These belong to your husband?"

"No, they were my oldest son's." Okay, referring to offspring in the past tense was never a good sign, so Zoro decided to drop the subject. Even he was capable of tact on occasion, and the woman _was_ feeding him.

Luckily, she continued her previous train of thought, apparently just as eager for a subject change as he was. "You two can go ahead and get cleaned up and changed first. I'll show you the way upstairs. There's no point in making you sit down here and eat while you're soaked through, and the food will keep."

And that was a custom-made excuse to get them to drop their guards. Undoubtedly. The woman paused as she finally noticed the stares she was getting from her two new guests. "Is something wrong?"

"Ah, well…" Tashigi stepped in before Zoro could come directly to the issue. "It's just that… why are you doing this for us?"

Or perhaps she'd be direct herself, though likely a lot more polite than Zoro would have been. He stood back, arms crossed over his chest and eyes narrowed intimidatingly. Time to show Tashigi what he was made of in that department.

"Well, you two saved Miki from a very dangerous situation. Isn't that reason enough?"

"Isn't this aiding and abetting criminals though? Shouldn't you be at least slightly concerned about that?" Zoro asked bluntly.

"Criminals already? So you two are in more trouble than come from just attacking some city guards then."

"Isn't the whole city guards thing enough for you?" He replied.

"It would be, if I didn't already know that those three in particular won't bother reporting sure a loss of face. What they'd lose would be worth much more to them than getting vengeance on you two."

Zoro snorted. "Oh yeah? If that's the case and you know it, why are they still around and causing trouble? And why should we believe what you say anyway?"

"They're still around because, despite their cowardice, they're actually fairly good fighters." She explained, "Most of us townsfolk wouldn't want to go up against them, and any group large enough to do so safely would easily be classified as a mob. And the government doesn't let things like that slide at all."

"You all must be incredibly weak then." Zoro concluded, which earned him a frustrated sigh from Tashigi.

"I suppose we two actually got off quite easy with them tonight then." Tashigi tried being a little more politic, and perhaps a little less arrogant. "But even so, there must be some chance of retribution for our actions. If you don't dare to go up against their like normally, why do so now? And wouldn't helping us fall under something just as serious as mob formation?"

"…. You have a military mind. Your friend seems more the brawler, but you've obviously had tactical and legal training."

Tashigi gulped and took a step backwards. "It's… a hobby…?"

"I'm sure."

"…"

She then did the one thing Zoro and Tashigi hadn't expected. She laughed. "You two… you're not from this island, are you?"

The pair froze, exchanging a glance. Was this it, the moment where the door would be broken down by local officials out for their heads?

"It's easy to tell." She continued, "You don't have the air of locals, and some of the things you say and do show that you really don't know what's happening here. Even the few merchants who are allowed to come into the docks know that much. Plus, I've never seen someone with bright green hair before…"

Tashigi coughed a little at that last bit, as Zoro glowered in her direction. 

"But there's no need to be so nervous." The woman chuckled as the two swordsmen's gazes snapped back onto her form. "I haven't reported you two to the authorities, if that's what you've been suspecting."

"Hmph. Just you saying that doesn't mean anything. As a matter of fact, it just makes you more suspicious." Zoro narrowed his eyes, one hand creeping back towards the swords slung across his back. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tashigi take a step backwards, closer to his side, a look of concern on her face. Whether it was worry about being recaptured or alarm over the possibility of Zoro actually attacking a civilian woman, he wasn't sure.

"Well, suspicious or not, I prefer to speak the truth. The men who went after Miki were in the wrong, and it's a rare person nowadays that will do the right thing regardless of the consequences. I also prefer to be one of those rare people myself."

"Once again, you saying so doesn't mean squat to us." Zoro fired back.

"Oh my. You two must have been having a rough time if you're this wound up."

"Actually, he's just naturally paranoid." Tashigi corrected. "But even so, you'll have to excuse our lack of immediate trust."

"No, it's quite understandable. Stay as long as you're comfortable then, but you should at least listen to what we have to say. It may help you remain free on this island."

"Hmph." Zoro leaned against one wall, the comforting weight of his swords against his back calming him somewhat. "Start talking."

"I'm sorry." Tashigi shot a glare at Zoro, which he rather felt he didn't rightly deserve. "It's just… these past few days have been very trying. And we have some serious problems to sort out that might keep us here much longer than we'd like."

"Problems you say?"

"Well, when we were captured…" She made an odd sound as she abruptly bit her tongue, but the damage was done.

Zoro straightened up. Tashigi had just let slip something that was unquestionably new to their host. Why had he let her, with her naïve nature, speak in the first place, dammit? And how would the woman react to the news that they were undoubtedly fugitives?

Reaction… none? Well, another raised eyebrow, but… had she already figured that much out? Who the heck was this woman, and what game was she playing?

"You two… You lost your crewmates, didn't you?" This new voice came from the entrance to the kitchen, causing the two of them to twitch and swivel around to face the new speaker. The soft voice matched the form in the doorway, revealing the girl the two had rescued earlier in the day.

"What…?" How many of them were there, that knew about all this then?

Kajou's mother stepped in to explain, "It's common knowledge of the sorts of things Kanraku and his men inflict on unsuspecting travelers. It happens often enough that a few people like yourselves escape every now and again."

Another shared glance, and then Tashigi asked one of the questions now burning in both of their minds. "So there are others? Like us?"

She nodded, "Most don't stay free for long, one way or another. In these past few years, I personally have known of only about half a dozen people in this town who escaped from Kanraku and his men. To meet two of you on the same day, traveling together… I can't help but wonder…"

"Wonder what?"

"Ah well. All in good time for that." Before Zoro could get righteously irate about that particular sidestep, she continued, "By the way, I haven't introduced myself yet have I? I'm terribly sorry. My name is Kizake, you've met my son Kajou, and Miki is one of my employees. You rescued her on her way to work this evening."

"Lovely." Zoro's voice dripped sarcasm. "So were you actually going to say or do anything to convince us that you aren't stabbing us in the back this evening, or should we just take off now?"

"Impatient." She shook her head. 

Zoro ignored that, continuing his own interrogation. "So, if there were or are other people like us, where are they now?"

"And why hasn't the World Government heard about this situation?" Tashigi chimed in, another unwanted and naïve statement.

"The World Government…" It was _not_ his imagination – there was some bitterness there when this strange woman referred to that all powerful organization. "I doubt they're very concerned about what happens on this island, one way or another. Whether they choose to ignore us or if a blind has been placed over their eyes in regards to this island I'm not sure, but either way they're not likely to be involved here anytime soon."

Kizake moved over to the plain wooden table and pulled out a chair. Sitting down, she gestured for Zoro and Tashigi to follow her lead. "Have a seat. If you don't trust us enough to get changed into dry clothes at the moment, why don't you two go ahead and at least eat your dinner?"

Since there was no reason to refuse that request, the swordsmen stepped over to the table as well, gingerly settling down in two more open chairs. Zoro spoke once again. "Fine. Free food is free food, but you'd better get talking if you want anything more from us."

"I understand. I suppose I should tell you how this all started." Sitting back in her chair and intertwining her fingers on the table in front of her, she began. "Five years ago, this island was a vastly different place..."

---------------------------------------

_Five years previous…_

"Dad!"

"Kajou! Come back here!" The irate voice of a young man echoed off the buildings lining the unpaved street.

"Wait, Dad!"

An older man came to a stop, turned around to face the six-year-old that was pelting after him, and waited until the youngster came sliding to a stop just before him. "Kajou, what do you think you're doing?"

"I want to go with you to the parade grounds today!"

"Oh? Well, today is…"

"Come on! You took Kashu last week! I want to go too!"

"I know, I know. But not today, okay?"

"Why not? You always say 'not today', and then I never get to go!"

"Kajou!" The original pursuer finally caught up with the pair, and grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck. "Where the hell did you think you were going?"

"Lay off, Kashu! I'm gonna go with Dad today!"

"You little idiot. Haven't you been paying attention at all for the last week?" This point was emphasized by a fist to the top of the skull. "There's a royal inspection today! That's way too important for those guys to have a brat like you getting under their feet."

"Hey now, what's all this?" Yet another person joined the trio, strolling up with an easygoing grin.

"Ah, Shaku. Sorry, I'm running a little late today."

"No kidding! I was about to leave without you. Of all the days to pick to procrastinate…" The younger man complained, pulling at the collar of his dress uniform uncomfortably.

"Heh, well, it's not in my nature to worry about these things." Roushu smirked.

Shaku sniffed in mock irritation. "It's not in your nature to worry about _anything,_ boss. That's why you have me, after all."

"It's job security for you, at least." He grinned back. "Now then. Kajou, you can't come with me today, but we'll see about you coming in tomorrow, alright?"

Staring earnestly up at his father, the youngster felt compelled to ask, "Really? You promise?"

Shaku chimed in with his own bit or persuasion. "We're doing full drills tomorrow, provided there are no schedule changes, so it should be much more interesting than seeing the inspection today anyway."

"Well… okay… I guess." Kajou didn't bother hiding his disappointment, but here was no point in arguing any longer. He was getting what he wanted, only a little later than he'd planned.

Roushu slapped his hands together briskly. "Alright! So, I'm off, and tell your mother I might be a little late for dinner tonight, okay?"

"Yes sir!"

-----------------------------

"This inspection… it's really coming out of nowhere, isn't it?" Shaku spoke after the two men had been walking for a few minutes.

Roushu cocked his head to one side, thinking for a moment before replying. "Hmmm. Not really. I don't know how much you and the other soldiers have heard about our negotiations with the World Government…"

"You mean about joining up with them?" Shaku waved one hand dismissively, "That's been an off-and-on thing for years now. Our country isn't really big enough or influential enough to draw much of their interest, I had thought."

"That's been the case in the past." He admitted easily, since it was common knowledge anyway, "But with the massive increase in pirate activity in the past couple of decades, and especially in these last three or four years, they're working on their own expansion programs. Located where we are, we're a natural stronghold. I think they're finally coming to appreciate the usefulness of that."

Shaku raised one eyebrow, smirking. "Eh? So you actually do pay attention to things like this sometimes?"

"I know how to tune in to the important parts. That's why I'm the boss." He yawned lazily. "Anyway, there are some representatives from the Marine base on the next island visiting right now, and the King is set to impress them."

"With us? I guess I should be flattered."

"Just make sure everyone behaves themselves today, and it should go off without a hitch." Roushu admonished his second in command, mock seriously.

"Well, I suppose if it's only for one day…" The two traded grins once again, picking up their pace as the parade grounds finally came into sight. 

------------------------------------

Kajou was waiting. The sun had set over and hour before, but he remained perched on the sloping rooftop that overhung their front porch. His father was very late tonight, which was extremely unusual. In his own childish mind, he had come to a conclusion that revolved around his father breaking his promise, that Kajou wouldn't get to go in with him tomorrow based on the fact that his father just wouldn't come home tonight.

Of course, he didn't want this to actually be true. It was just his frustration coming to the surface. His father never broke a promise without a very good reason, after all. Kajou didn't always understand the reasons, but Kashu always told him how important it was that Roushu be somewhere else, that he couldn't be there. It was times like those that Kashu actually acted like a big brother, not just a jerk like usual. 

But here he was. Waiting for that familiar figure to round the corner of the buildings down the street, trotting along as if running through the door could change the fact that he was already very late.

The youngster perked up as a person did indeed come into sight at that moment. After only a moment of observation, and despite the darkness, he was disappointed. That person definitely wasn't his father. Whoever it was, they were coming toward the house though.

Kajou slid to the edge of the roof and dropped down to the ground. That was a trick that always got Kashu and his mother very upset since it was almost a ten foot drop, but he'd never hurt himself doing it yet. There he stood and waited for the stranger to arrive, after noticing the sound of the front door opening behind him at almost the same moment that he landed. Obviously he wasn't the only one in the house watching and waiting.

The one approaching called out to them, waving one arm over his head. "Kizake! I have a message for you!"

Kajou recognized the voice; the man was one of his father's troops. Not one that was particularly close to the family, but he had met pretty much every one of them at some point. The soldier trotted the final few yards up to the edge of the porch, addressing Kajou's mother. "Commander Roushu won't be able to come back tonight. Right after our inspection, the whole squad was requested to come to the capital for a few days. He said he was really sorry about it, but it was a royal order."

Kajou bristled in anger. It was as if everyone was conspiring against him! Before he could truly get wound up however, his mother spoke. "I see. Well, thank you for coming to tell us, Keru. Do you know when he'll be back?"

"Two or three days was what we were told ma'am."

"Well, do you have a moment to come in for coffee or tea, or do you need to head back right away?"

He blinked for a moment before smiling in appreciation of the offer. "I'm not due in until morning, actually."

--------------------------------------

Once all four of them, the three family members and their guest, were settled in the kitchen chairs, the young messenger went into a little more detail about the day's events.

"It was the first time I'd seen the King in person. I always expected him to look a little different somehow…"

Kajou's mother laughed softly, "Well, we all have a certain image of royalty in our own minds."

"You've seen him too, then?"

"Several times." She sipped her tea for a moment. "I am the wife of one of his highest ranking military officers, after all."

Kashu broke into the conversation at that point. "There were representatives from the World Government there today as well, weren't there?"

"Yes, three of them, right alongside the King." The other young man nodded. "They didn't really look like I had expected them to either."

"Really?" Kajou was also interested at this point. There weren't many foreigners that visited their island, for various reasons, and he'd never seen someone from another island before. Hearing about it firsthand was almost as fascinating.

"Yeah. One was a Marine. I guess he looked pretty normal, all decked out in that white uniform of theirs. The other two though…" He shook his head. "If I may be so bold, I'm wondering if the World Government is taking us seriously at all."

"It's never being too bold to speak the truth…" Kajou's mother had a twinkle in her eye as she quoted one of her husband's favorite sayings, "But please tell us what exactly you mean by that."

"Well, one of the others was a really young guy. Younger than me, I think. And he looked really bored during the whole session. It was actually kind of insulting, since we were all taking it so seriously. I can't imagine that someone like that holds any real power with the World Government."

"Well, appearances can be deceiving in some cases." This was Kashu stepping in, with the air of an informed man. "I've heard stories of Marines being commissioned as officers at ages as low as ten or so. It's all a matter of talent."

Kajou rolled his eyes at his brother's tone. Everyone in town knew that Roushu's oldest son aspired to be one of the first people from their country to join the Marines. He'd been obsessed with the idea for years now, and Kajou was really tired of hearing about it.

"What about the other guy?" He decided to push the conversation forward before his brother could start off on something boring about the Marines.

"The last one…" Keru trailed off for a moment. "I couldn't see him very well. He was wearing a long jacket, and a wide-brimmed hat. He seemed like he was the one in charge of the group, but I don't think he actually said anything the entire time."

"How could you tell he was in charge then?" Kajou asked, curious.

He shrugged, apparently not really knowing how to explain it. "The other two just seemed to defer to him."

"Defer…?"

"It means they stood back and let him make the decisions." Kashu explained shortly.

"But if he never said anything…"

"At any rate," Kajou was cut off and ignored by his elder brother, "I guess they were impressed by Dad's squad, if they asked them to come to the capital right away."

"Apparently."

"But why? What use could they have for soldiers at the moment?" Kajou blinked as he caught something in his mother's tone. Was she worried about this? Why?

"Well, it's well known that Roushu's command is incredibly skilled and absolutely loyal to the king." The soldier responded confidently, "Any one of us would die at his command. I think they were so impressed by that and our performance today that they're going to be using our group as royal guards and guards for the emissaries for the remainder of their visit."

She shook her head. "Once again, why? The king _has_ royal guards. They're a special squad, intensively trained just for that position."

Chagrined at his own oversight, the young man admitted, "That's right, he does…. But I didn't see any of them around today."

"None? That can't be right. The King doesn't go anywhere without at least one group of guardsmen." Now there was no mistaking the worry in his mother's voice, and Kajou felt bewilderment creeping in.

Keru thought for a moment more. "Well, maybe there were a few, but I didn't really notice them. They didn't seem to be doing much."

"Well guarding isn't very exciting. At least that's what Dad always says." Kashu concluded. 

"Yes, that's true." He smiled, back in a more upbeat mood almost instantly. "I'm sure they were quite bored, having to stand around and watch all of us undergo an inspection. I know I was about to fall asleep, and I was involved!"

"Hmmm. Well, if you were that tired earlier today I suppose we shouldn't keep you much longer." Kizake stood and carried her mug to the sink. "After all, it's a long trip to the capital city from here. Would you like another cup of coffee before you go?"

"No, that's alright. I really should get going." Keru had apparently just realized how late it actually was. "Thank you for your hospitality, and do you have any messages for me to give to Commander Roushu?"

"Just the usual!"

"Gotcha." He flashed them a grin before turning toward the door. "I'll take my leave then."

--------------------------------------

Roushu stepped through the door of the barracks he and his men had been housed in overnight, squinting his eyes against the morning sun. Peering out over the capital city from his location on a natural high ground that housed the Palace and all of the royal buildings, he sighed.

"A little early in the morning to be so downbeat, isn't it?" Shaku appeared from the door way as well.

"I had to break my promise to Kajou…"

"Oh yeah." Shaku was quiet for a moment. "You'll make it up to him. And I'm sure he understands, since we sent Keru to let them know about us being called in."

"I'm sure you're right." Roushu turned and headed toward the stairs that led down to the massive Palace courtyard. He called over his shoulder, "We're supposed to be ready and in formation in twenty minutes. Why don't you go and make sure all of them get a move on, eh?"

"Yeah sure. I'll tear 'em away from their breakfasts right away." With that, Shaku disappeared back indoors, leaving Roushu alone. 

He sighed once again as he began working his way downstairs. There was something… off about this whole situation. Like his subordinate, he had noticed the lack of presence from the royal guardsmen the day before as well. Oh, they were there alright, but few in number and they seemed extremely unmotivated… barely moving, really.

And besides that, the King himself wasn't acting quite right. Now, Roushu wasn't arrogant enough to think that he knew the King on such a personal level as to truly intuit his moods and such, but something about the day before had been just not right. Their mighty ruler had seemed… dazed. Extremely quiet. As if he had also contracted whatever was afflicting his royal guards so severely. 

Perhaps that was it. An illness of some sort. Naturally they would be loathe to spread word of such a thing among the populace, as it would cause undue worry if it was a minor ailment. Of course, the depth of symptoms that the King had been showing were far from minor…

Roushu didn't get a chance to continue his train of thought, as he was accosted as he reached the bottom of the staircase. "Ah, Commander Roushu!"

Turning to face the voice, Roushu saw it was one of the World Government representatives from the day before. The youngest, bored looking one, no mistake. "Ah, hello. I didn't get your name before, Mr…?"

"Rokku. I'm Rokku. Do you have a moment?"

-----------

End Ch. 11

**Next Time**- Roushu & Kashu! A Father's tears and a Son's rage!

**Ending Note**: I lined myself up for this one too… but I HATE writing kids! I just can't get into that mindset without feeling dumb. I, myself, was never a child. I sprang fully formed from the forehead of Zeus, I'll have you know. **Newsflash**: This story is now 80 pages long. Wow, what a number. Ah, and I was inspired last week as well, and went on to write a semi-smut scene for later on in this story. (Yes, there will be things like that in here eventually! I may have to raise the rating…)


	12. Rest! Compassion & Questions

**A/N**: OK! Number 12. Not a lucky number… not even a particularly interesting number. And long overdue. Oh well. This chapter brought to you by angelicyokai. Without her actually making me develop a plot, this chapter would not exist. Or would at least have been interminably delayed. Please suffer through (or skip) the first few paragraphs of flashback wrap-up. I promise not to do that again. Thank you for your patronage!

**Chapter 12:**

That man… Rokku. There was something wrong there. Something wrong… everywhere.

Nothing was right, suddenly. Roushu couldn't place it exactly, but he had this strange feeling that there was something just underneath the surface that he desperately needed to be able to see.

He only hoped he wouldn't be too late.

--

Kashu was out front when the King's men arrived. He noticed their approach very quickly, since his cover of working in the family's minimal front yard had worn thin quite some time before. It was just busy work, something to keep his body and mind occupied while he waited.

His father was two days late in returning, with no message or explanation forthcoming so far. This was a totally unprecedented situation, and everyone in the family was on edge to some degree.

Since that was the case, Kashu welcomed the arrival of officials that would provide them a solid reason for his father's tardiness. Now they could stop worrying, since he had no doubt simply been caught up in his duties and simply unable to find time to send off a message. Two days wasn't all that long, after all!

The King's men rounded the building at the end of the street purposefully, their destination not a matter of question. Kashu managed to beat them to the house, but just barely.

He opened his mouth to ask about his father, what kind of reception the Marines from Headquarters had given them, but never got the chance to say a word. The leader of the troop immediately stepped up to Kashu's mother and began speaking, the words that would haunt him for years to come.

"We're here to take you into temporary custody. Come with us immediately."

"What happened?" Kizake's voice was controlled, but Kashu could sense something terrible, like a dead weight, in the air.

"Your husband has been convicted of the murder of over dozen people, including his second in command. His execution is scheduled in three days."

--

_Back to the present…_

Zoro had finally had enough. Currently wandering the deserted halls in the upper part of the house, he kept himself alert for signs of any other guests or whatnot approaching. Luckily it was late enough at night and not close enough to the weekend for everyone to have gone ahead and settled in for the evening for the most part. He'd gotten bored and restless about five minutes into the explanation of these people's history, and had taken the opportunity to flee the scene when it was presented.

It was, in the end, another long, boring story about someone Zoro didn't really care about. Unlike his crewmates, he was uninterested in the trials of other people for the most part. He had enough trouble just trying to survive on his own, and other people were, in his mind, responsible for their own issues.

That being said, he was absolutely certain that if his companions found out about this 'injustice', they'd feel compelled to do something about it. Hopefully he could get this sorted out before Luffy got involved, because that sort of thing inevitably ended with rampant, large scale destruction, and he was trying to be _sneaky_ here, dammit. And that wasn't something that the Marines would be able to ignore either, and he didn't dare press his luck with Tashigi any farther than he already had. That cruel streak of hers was uninhibited when it came to a certain pirate swordsman, he was sure.

And speaking of the female Marine…

She'd obviously been moved by the tale. But of course, there was blatant Injustice going on here, and that was something he was sure she was just compulsively driven to correct in some manner. He'd just have to find a way to avoid getting dragged in.

He'd roamed farther through the building as he contemplated his personal irritations, eventually finding himself on what appeared to be a small balcony on the second floor. That was as good a place as any to avoid the rest of humanity, so he settled in against the side of the building and stared out over the city. It was actually a rather nice view up there, but the peace was quickly disrupted, or rather never had a chance to fall. Tashigi's innate 'annoy Zoro' ability had led her directly to his hiding place in an astonishingly short amount of time.

She got straight to the point. "We have to help these people."

Zoro let his head drop to his chest for a moment before lifting his gaze to stare incredulously at the female swordsman. "I refuse to get involved in another governmental overthrow."

That got him a rather inscrutable look from Tashigi. He wasn't sure if she was angered at the reminder of his past deeds, suspicious that he'd been involved in a more revolutions and whatnot that she knew, or just disappointed in his lack of compassion.

Compassion be damned. Zoro was, first and foremost, as survivor. That meant focusing on his own problems, and not those of random others. He just wanted to grab his friends and make tracks as far and fast as humanly possible. Maybe even a little faster, if he could manage it. They simply didn't have the time, energy or resources available to get involved in yet another twisted escapade of Other People's Problems.

At any rate… "We don't have to overthrow the government! And I can't believe you'd suggest that I would be involved in such a thing!"

"Then what kind of 'help' were you planning on giving them?" He growled in disgust, "Motivational speeches? And what, exactly, are you planning on helping them _with?_"

She stared at him over the top rim of her glasses. "Excuse me?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but as a swordsman most of the 'help' I give to other people," Grudging as it may be, "involves my swords. Which I don't have. Instead of getting all tied up in this retardation, we need to get back to that prison island while they're still all riled up and disorganized and steal our swords back."

He paused for a moment to let that sink in before continuing on to the final blow. "That _Shigure_ of yours might not matter enough that you care to go and get it, but I refuse to continue on without my _meitou_."

Aha. Obvious rage at the implication that she didn't care about _Shigure_, but no abrupt panic. She must know where her sword was, and by extension his as well. And it mustn't have been back on that prison island either, or he was sure he'd have heard about it as soon as her head broke the water after their jump. No, the only reason she'd been so willing to flee was because she must have already found out somehow that her _meitou_ was elsewhere.

Now to get her to share that information with him…

"How _dare_ you imply that _Shigure_ means so little to me?! I care more for my _meitou_ than you do, since you're callous enough to use yours for such evil purposes!" He rolled his eyes at this proclamation but allowed her to continue. "I certainly would never simply abandon such a precious thing as my _meitou_, and I have no intention of allowing other scum to wander off with yours either! Those I will take from _you_ personally!"

Well, it was certainly nice to have goals in life, though Zoro wasn't too thrilled about this particular plan involving himself. At any rate, he still needed that key information, which he was sure she wouldn't part with easily. "Then we need those swords back, don't we?"

She huffed in outrage. "That's not even a question! But they're not back on that island anyway, they're somewhere else in this country – one of the other leaders has them!"

There it was. Only one final piece of the puzzle… "Where?"

"I – I… don't know…" Well. That admission took all the wind out of her sails right away. And it stopped Zoro in his tracks too, for that matter.

Zoro slumped back against the building, staring at her once again. So much for a quick and easy destination acquisition. "You don't know?"

"… No." She elaborated quickly though, obviously trying to justify her ignorance, "Rokku said he was a weapons collector, and a part of the government. Supposedly he takes all the quality weapons they steal from their prisoners."

Zoro growled to himself under his breath. "Great. We don't even have a damned name. Where the hell are we supposed to start?"

After a moment of thought, she answered somewhat hesitantly, "We could ask Kizake about him… from what Rokku said, he should be fairly famous on this island, I think."

"Oh? And how are you going to explain why you're so interested in this guy? Surely you aren't planning on telling that woman that she's harboring fugitives of a seriously dangerous and very wanted sort?"

"I'll… think of something."

"You do that." Zoro pointedly turned his gaze back out over the city. What a complete waste of time. After all that, all they had were some vague insinuations from a moronic sleaze to go on. Not even a damned _name_.

By the time he finished stewing in his own outrage, Tashigi was already gone.

--

Tashigi slipped into the kitchen area, glancing around nervously. Surely this was in part due to the fact that she wasn't sure if there were any other employees around to be wary of, but mostly it was because…

Well, her conversation with Zoro had brought to light their startling lack of progress on some points, and their desperate need of information in particular areas. And there was only one local she could really ask about it. Unfortunately, she really couldn't think of a way to justify her curiosity without having to explain a few things that would be better left unsaid, in particular the part about being fugitives and all. She was sure that wasn't going to go over well.

But, as Roronoa had also pointed out, they needed to get their swords back, and quickly. The longer they waited, the more likely it would be that _Shigure_, and Roronoa's three _meitou _as well, would be moved elsewhere or otherwise become inaccessible. And she was perfectly willing to admit that their chances of freeing their respective comrades were higher with their familiar and trusted weapons in hand.

"Kizake…" She spotted the woman through as doorway, sweeping the last bit of the night's dust off the stone floor. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

--

In the end, Tashigi was shocked, surprised and very, very relieved.

She had gotten through her whole little questioning session with Kizake without having to explain _why_ she wanted to know about the local weapons aficionados at all. This was nothing short of a miracle, but the woman seemed honestly disinterested, or at least incurious, about the strange things that Tashigi managed to _know_ about her homeland.

She had readily supplied a name to go with the reputation – Mottsa. The man was apparently well known for his various idiosyncrasies in these parts, one of the main ones being his obsession with collecting weaponry. One of the other major notables being his obsession with _using_ every possible form of weaponry. This certainly didn't sound like a good idea to Tashigi, who put more value into specialty than universality, but if the man was skilled enough to pull it off… then he might be quite a foe to watch out for.

Beyond that, the man apparently also had his own fortress. That seemed to be the means by which to determine who had weight to throw around on this island – whether they had their own personal bastion or not. His, luckily, wasn't offshore, but was indeed coastal. What kind of governmental powerhouse builds a personal sanctuary without a view of the ocean, after all? Supposedly this place was a day long trip by sea… but more than three times that by foot. How exactly the pair of swordsmen were going to go about acquiring a ship Tashigi wasn't sure, but she had confidence that they'd figure something out.

Feeling more than accomplished, and rather smug as well, Tashigi bid her hostess goodnight and headed upstairs. Kizake had been kind enough to supply the two swordsmen with a pair of rooms she had open for the night, and Tashigi was certainly looking forward to sleeping under an actual roof again.

Kizake watched her leave, ascending the stairs to the guest rooms, in silence, her expression unreadable.

--

Tashigi awoke, as was her custom, just as the sun began to crest over the horizon. Another day of her life on the run was beginning, but at least this one was starting with her in an actual bed, fairly comfortable, well fed and truly clean for the first time in days. She took a moment to stretch out before sitting up and slipping over the side of the bed, her feet touching down on the smooth, worn wooden floorboards of the inn. She didn't bother putting her glasses on immediately since, theoretically, there was nothing to really trip over in the small, sparsely furnished room.

She took a grand total of two steps before she found that she was mistaken in that assessment. Her left foot caught on something on the floor, and she promptly fell into a spectacular face plant into those same old floorboards. They were quite clean, too, from her new and close up inspection.

More to the point, and more of interest, the thing she had tripped over had moved when her foot connected. And even more disturbing, a string of irate and sleepy curses could now be heard from the thing – no, person – she had fallen over.

"Roronoa! What the _hell_ are you doing in my room?!"

The drowsy grumbles abruptly cut off, a momentary pause following. Then the green haired room invader abruptly sat up, shoving Tashigi's legs off his stomach as he did so. This did not improve her mood, inclining her more towards a physical form of punishment toward him with waiting for any sort of explanation, but he made sure to move out of her immediate range before she could collect herself.

"Hell. You've seemed halfway coordinated for the past few days, so I thought it might actually be safe to sleep nearby. Guess I was wrong."

"That doesn't explain why you're IN MY ROOM! You were given your own, you know!"

"Yeah sure. We just met these people, who are suspiciously nice, and they go ahead and split us up. Excuse me for not wanting to get caught sleeping in separate places when they decide to spring a trap on us!"

"You're paranoid!"

"I prefer to consider it 'exceptionally motivated by survival'."

"These people are not going to trap us, or turn us in, or anything of the sort! Weren't you listening to anything she told us about last night?!"

"Yeah yeah. Sob story, whatever. Anybody can make shit like that up, and if you fall for it so easily, it's amazing you're still around."

"PARANOID!"

"Hey, you guys…" A voice, somewhat muddled with sleep but recognizable as that of Kajou, called through the closed door. The closed, locked door. How the hell did Roronoa get in last night, did he climb through the window or something? At any rate… "You guys should keep it down, right? There's a lot of people still sleeping here, you know?"

Well, that silenced the escalating argument right away. The last thing they needed at this juncture was undue and irate attention. Instead, the two swordsmen glared at each other for a minute until Zoro rose to his feet and headed for the exit. "Now that you're awake, I guess you can guard your own back. I'm outta here. Come find me when you're ready to leave."

She had to physically bite her tongue to hold back the variety of comebacks, some wittier than others, that sprang to mind. Instead she simply glowered at his back until he shut the heavy hardwood door behind himself. Rising to her feet, she sighed in irritation and set about preparing to face another day beside Roronoa Zoro.

--

Zoro slouched against the side of the inn. Somehow he'd wandered outside and was now in the rear yard of the place. At least it was quiet out here, and notably free of irritating female swordsmen. He shifted his shoulders, trying to find a more comfortable leaning position against the weather worn siding as he waited for Tashigi to come and find him. She would eventually, after all.

He'd intended to slip away before she'd woken up that morning, but his own exhaustion must have gotten the better of him. He'd stayed up late the night before, doing practice swings and various indoor-environment-friendly sword practices in his assigned space until he was sure that Tashigi would be asleep. He'd slipped into her room then and settled in on the floor, intending for more of an extended nap than actual sleep. It was true, he hadn't wanted to be isolated from her in the event of some sort of ambush, as unlikely as it admittedly was. More to the point, he hadn't wanted her to fall into some stupid trap that he'd have to waste time and energy springing her from.

And then the next thing he knew was being rudely awakened by a solid kick to the side. How irritating. Maybe he was losing his edge, if he was becoming that unaware of his surroundings.

The solution for this was, naturally, more practice and training. He'd have to work on resharpening his senses for the next few days. However he could fit that in around their already hectic schedule, as it was.

Speaking of his schedule, if they were going to get their swords back, he was going to need a third stand in. The two he had stolen were woefully inadequate but usable, but he needed three to pull of _santouryuu_, naturally. And that really was where the strength of his technique lay, in the end. He vaguely recalled a previous mental note to review his one sword style techniques, but immediately filed it away again. There was just no time at the moment, and the local expert, as it was, on that subject was undoubtedly Tashigi.

Definitely not something to contemplate deeply this early in the morning. Something of a safer topic… if he was going to go and rescue his swords – and his crew too, when he got around to it – he needed to procure that third temporary sword in the meantime. That thought in mind, he rose to his feet, stretching out languorously before setting out over the back fence of the inn.

Surely somewhere in this town he could find a cheap sword…

--

End Ch. 12

**Ending Note**: Apologies for the long hiatus between chapters. I have a lot on my plate, and it takes _time _to write decent fanfiction. And I won't put out anything less. Hopefully I'll be able to work my writing back into my schedule more often this summer.


	13. SOS! Surrounded in Smoke

**A/N:** So, here's lucky #13! Hopefully I put this one out in less than 3 months, eh? One reviewer note I'd like to address here if I may, (though I said I would only do such things on my LiveJournal page anymore): Tashigi's sense of direction. It was put forth that Tashigi also has a tendency to get lost, having to be led by Smoker to wherever she needs to be…. I've never seen this. Tashigi is blind, but she always gets where she's going. She trips over stuff and ends up in unfortunate places/circumstances, she has a tendency to not be able to identify people (mistaking a random officer for Smoker, etc.), but she got a around Lougetown well enough to cut off Luffy & Co. before they reached their ship. She managed to outmaneuver Crocodile and Nico Robin in Alabastia, ending up in their path (much good that it did her), she's shown leading men on many occasions, which she probably wouldn't be capable of if she was as directionless as Zoro. **P.S.** I read the manga first. I occasionally watch the anime, but I consider the manga more cannon than the animated version.

**A/N from later**: Yay, new writin's. Written while watching Kill Bill (both parts) in a very late night marathon. Mmmm... swords & fightin' all over the place.

**Chapter 13: **

The first hint Zoro had that something might be awry – more than usual, at least – came when he was trying to reorient himself for about the tenth time in that short morning. He'd already visited two weapons shops, and had been confronted with a frustratingly familiar scenario. Namely, he was too poor to afford even the cheapest swords available.

He continued his quest in hopes of finding some secondhand dealer that would be more reasonable, and to that end he had sought out high ground. The best way to scout for things was to look from high places, never mind that no one would be able to identify a weapons merchant based on the appearance of the building's roof.

A plume of black smoke rose from an area below, the scent of char faintly coming through on the wind as well. Zoro's eyes traced the dark smear against the pale sky back down towards the ground; the natural morbid curiosity that all humans possess drawing him to discover _what_ exactly was burning.

The green haired swordsman's eyes were quite sharp, which was why the whole 'search for weapons from the sky' idea had seemed logical at the time. Right now however, what he saw was a two story building – or what remained of it – in a rather spectacular inferno.

The rising smoke and the familiar outline of the building ablaze created a growing sense of dread in the back of Zoro's mind. "Isn't that... the inn that we stayed at last night?"

Even as he gave voice to his own fear, he was turning to bolt back down to the ground, hoping his own terrible directional sense would leave him just this once – he had to get back there, right now!

"Wait." A male voice caused Zoro to whip his head around. Who was it that was daring to delay him here, like this? Well, if he kept getting in his way he could always beat the crap out of this guy and make _him_ lead the swordsman back to the inn. The speaker turned out to be a man, probably slightly older than Zoro, dressed in some scruffy looking gray clothing. His pants were rather torn... and actually, it kind of looked like the rips were exposing some dog bites around his calves. Well, this wasn't the time to get distracted by this weirdo!

Zoro turned his back to the stranger and prepared to make tracks, but was stopped by a hand on his arm. He froze, tensed, shocked by the apparent death wish the guy had, since he was obviously about to lose some important parts of his anatomy. Namely, that hand of his was definitely going to be the first thing to go.

"I said to wait!"

Zoro's hand found the hilt of his disguised sword instinctively through the cloth bound around the weapon. Spinning around, he jerked the blade from its sheath and brought it to bear on the soon to be dead retard who kept getting in his way. There was no need for words, the sword and Zoro's glare were much more eloquent.

"Whoa!" The man put his hands up in front of his chest in a placating gesture and backed away, perhaps just then realizing his complete mistake in coming within half a mile of Zoro in the first place. "W-wait just a minute!"

"You..." Zoro narrowed his eyes, "You were following us when we got here."

"Yes.. that's true. I've been tracking you for days... I'm surprised you noticed..."

Zoro snorted. "You're not all that great at it. I just figured it would be a waste of energy to kill you right away. Not until I figured out who had you tailing us, anyway."

The man's face brightened a bit, rather preemptively in Zoro's opinion. "Well, I'm not one of your enemies, so can we talk like reasonable people?"

"Get out of my way. I need to go back." Zoro moved forward to circle around the minor obstacle in his path, sword remaining at the ready just in case.

"Don't!" The man took a deep breath as the sword shot forward, millimeters from his neck, "Don't bother going back – everyone there is either captured or dead. It's them, don't you get it? The government here doesn't care who they kill to get to you, but they sure as hell want you dead!"

"My partner is back there." How strange it felt to call her that, but how else was he supposed to define their current relationship?

The other man was not impressed by his loyalty, however. "I understand where you're coming from, really I do, but like I said, it'll be too late..."

Zoro didn't bother to even take a moment to contemplate this pathetic reasoning though, instead he started making demands since that was what the swordsman was good at. "You're leading me back."

He gaped in disbelief, "What? Weren't you listen-"

"Now!" Zoro's blade drew a line of bright red blood from the skin of the other's neck. It was enough to finally force a decision at least.

"Shit! Psychotic retard!" He spat out, furious for some reason that Zoro didn't really care to fathom. He'd been called worse in his days anyway. "I don't care anymore, go and get killed, but don't expect me to stay and watch!"

They ended up making good time, actually. Of course, both of them were quite sufficiently motived, though in different ways, even though they were drawing a bit of attention since Zoro had neglected to hide his weapon again as he ran. There didn't seem to be much point, after all, when he had a strong suspicion that he'd be needing it again right away.

As the approached their final destination, they blended in among the crowds running toward the burning building, which was a convenient cover for their approach. As they got closer, Zoro's heart sank farther and farther, the inferno was complete, and was now even spreading to nearby buildings as well. There were no efforts to save the inn by the volunteer firefighters that had appeared out of the crowd, they were focused on saving what they could of the rest of the block.

The two men came to a stop in front of the inn, simply shocked at the state of the obviusly unnatural blaze for a moment. Zoro recovered quickly though, turning to sear h through the crowds for the people he knew would have been n that building previously. There was no one out front, so he began circling around toward the back as quickly as possible, vaguely aware of the other man following after him for some obscure reason.

Heavy, choking smoke billowed and flowed through the air, forcing Zoro to squint painfully and causing the swordsman's breath to burn in his lungs. Still, there was no sign of any of those caught in the fire, alive or dead. The final corner of the building was just ahead, the small yard and alleyway Zoro recalled being behind the inn were near, and they remained the only possible remaining route of escape.

Turning that corner, Zoro found that this was indeed exactly where the people within had ended up, though they certainly were not alone. The owner and her son were in the middle of a circle of well armed guardsmen, easily recognizable in their bland uniforms, not to mention the fact that they were armed at all.

As for Tashigi... her location wasn't immediately apparent upon simply turning the corner, but a closer inspection following a few moments of staring quickly revealed her fate. The young Marine was thoroughly coated in ash and soot, obviously having been pretty much the last one to escape from the building. Knowing her personality, she may have ricked her own hide to ensure that everyone else escaped first. And look where it had landed her – right in the hands of the enemy.

Once again, Zoro had that exasperating feeling of 'it serves her right' combined with a strong overlay of a need to rescue her as quickly as possible. She wasn't nearly a damsel in distress at any rate, since the men surrounding her still hadn't managed to relieve her of her own weapon. It was just proof that having a lack of arms among civilians made these guys' training and experience just that much more sub par than a person used to dealing with dangerous people in the real world. Even so, she didn't look like her winning streak was going to last much longer.

Among the chaos of the scene, somehow Zoro and his guide hadn't been spotted right away. The swordsman decided to take full advantage of that luck, electing to make his first priority saving Tashigi. Once she was free, they could both work on anyone else who needed rescuing from these unfortunate circumstances.

The guardsman didn't see him coming until he was already in full charge, by then also having pulled his second weapon from its sheath across his back. Tashigi instantly took advantage of the surprise among her opponents, and to good effect too. Two of the men dropped beneath her blade before Zoro was in range to attack. As the pirate leapt into the fray, Tashigi backed away, moving closer to the side of the building she had been cornered against. This threw him off slightly, having expected her to immediately move forward to join him in putting these losers in their place, but he shrugged it off as her simply giving him some room to move in the crowded area.

Taking advantage of the freedom of movement, Zoro cut down another pair of enemies, slashing the forearm of one and the chest of another, effectively removing any fighting capability they had for the rest of the match.

"Tch. Not even a challenge." He smirked as he moved his swords back to an en garde position and waited for the next batch to attack. Remaining aware of the overall situation, he noted that their opponents had underestimated quite a few factors here as well, which appeared to be a trend with them. The fire was obviously completely out of control, so some efforts were being forced upon them to do something about the blaze they themselves had likely started purposely. In addition, they had way too few people for dealing with the two swordsmen, despite plenty of previous experience in getting their asses beat by the pair. No reinforcements appeared to be immediately forthcoming either, so Zoro was confident in their overall win. It was also rather fortunate, but none of the men present appeared to be equipped with firearms, since dodging would be difficult in this sort of situation.

"Come on, let's deal with these guys and get out of here." He called confidently to the female Marine behind him, expecting her to be at his side in the next moment.

"Y-yeah." Her response was delayed and breathless, though she did immediately appear on his right with her blade at the ready. Up close, she really did look like she'd been through the wringer – most of her clothing was essentially black, and the scent of the fire clung heavily to the air surrounding her.

The first of the attackers charged in, armed with a heavy blade. Zoro's blade knocked aside the charging man's weapon, his other weapon flashing forward to slice diagonally across the guardsman's torso. Gagging on his own blood, one opponent dropped, writhing, into the dirt and ash at Zoro's feet. The sight of one of their companions being reduced to blood and gore so abruptly caused the others gearing up for a spar with him to hesitate for a moment, so Zoro gave in to a flicker of concern that had taken root in his mind since arriving at the scene. He glanced over at Tashigi, reassuring himself with her presence.

What he saw only reaffirmed his fears. She was still holding off the two men who had elected to attack her rather than Zoro, but...

Her movements were slow and unsure. They were still far above par for the average fighter, but for her it was an obvious decrease in ability. She was breathing hard, to an extent which was something Zoro had yet to see happen in any of the fights they'd been in previously. Sure, he had seen her worn out and even working up a sweat, particularly when they had been escaping from the fortress, but she honestly appeared to not be able to get enough oxygen. Her face was pale, and she was starting to stagger.

_Damn it... I need to get her out of here..._ But there was another problem. She wasn't the only one that needed rescuing from this situation. There were those inn people too, and he had actually been counting on her to help him out with that. Now, though -

He shifted his gaze quickly toward the other hapless victims in question. He needed to prioritize and get everyone out safely – even if that meant leaving Tashigi to defend herself for a few more minutes. If she wasn't capable of that, she was his first concern, so he needed to make the decision before she became completely incapable of battle.

He blinked in surprise as the nature of the situation revealed itself to him. It actually appeared that he wasn't going to be needed for the rescue of others. The strange guy who had accosted him, and then followed him here unwillingly, had taken matters into his own hands and was actually making more progress than the two swordsmen. The young man was displaying a rather adept sort of hand to hand style, augmented by the use of a small dagger in his right hand. He had already loosened the mother and son pair from their circle of captors, and was making steady movements toward a small, fire darkened alley. Once they made it in there, the odds would be good for them to slip away under the cover of smoke and crowds of onlookers, if Zoro recalled correctly. Of course, that would likely be the case if they managed to mingle into any such place in this area.

Zoro and Tashigi naturally stood out a lot more, seeing as they were obviously non-native to this island, so they'd have a harder time. At least he didn't have to worry about others now. Swiveling around, he absently swatted down another weapon wielding man that got within his range, using the momentum of the motion to bring himself over to the female swordsman's side.

"Come on. Let's get out of here."

"But - " Apparently she was going to argue the point for some reason, perhaps intending to teach a lesson to people unscrupulous enough to torch the home and business of people who were apparently quite altruistic. Zoro could see her point of view, annoyingly enough – perhaps she was a bad influence on his way of thinking – but right now even he could tell she was in no shape to be handing down Justice on wrongdoers.

"Tch." Zoro snarled silently as a few more enemies tried to take advantage of the two slightly distracted fighters that were now in a confined space. These were dealt with on his end with a series of quick strikes, though the one that got past him met much less resistance from Tashigi.

Indeed, it was obvious that whatever stamina had sustained her to that point was failing, as she barely managed to block the man's swing. Zoro spun around, ignoring the last few people surrounding the pair, to thoroughly slaughter Tashigi's opponent where he stood. Before the body managed to hit the ground, he had already darted over to her side and grabbed the young Marine by the arm.

"We're going. Come on!" She didn't argue this time, actually allowing herself to be dragged off toward a low wall nearby that Zoro knew would be only a minor barrier to himself. As for Tashigi... well, when they reached the wall, he simply scooped her up in his arms and threw himself over, using a convenient crate as a launching pad.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Apparently the Marine still had enough breath to yell at him, but Zoro wasn't going to waste time arguing or explaining. He landed lightly – as much as possible while carrying another person, anyway – on the cobblestones on the other side of the wall and quickly set out in whichever direction looked the most passable.

_Meanwhile, elsewhere..._

Usopp thought they still had a chance. He at least thought they'd make it to the next day and continue their information gathering. Unfortunately, his luck had turned bad that afternoon, and didn't seem to be getting better as the day went on.

They'd started their day with staking out the fortress where they'd – somehow – determined that the rest of their friends were being held. This had become routine, though even Usopp was starting to wonder exactly what he thought they were going to get out of this. There was nothing else he could think of to do to facilitate any sort of escape though, so he just watched and waited.

On the up side, he had managed to discover the routine of the guards and other staff associated with the stronghold to a truly incredible detail. That was serving him well now, but not in the way he had ever desired it to.

During their vigilant watch in late morning, fading into afternoon, they had finally made note of an interesting happening. Rather, it was something of a disaster. There was more activity than normal around one of the side gates, with quite a bit of troop buildup. Usopp and Chopper watched with interest but no concern until the first prisoner was brought out.

They couldn't tell who it was, not from that distance, and the guards were taking some pains to keep the person well surrounded, but it was obviously not one of the staff of the place. On top of that, it seemed that a cloth hood or something like it had been placed over the person's head to black their vision. Well, that was fine. If they were moved to a new place, perhaps there would be more opportunities to conduct a rescue from there.

More people were brought out, far too many to be merely Straw Hat crew members, and loaded into more than one truck for removal. This was where some panic started to set in. Until now it had been okay since they were fairly certain that everyone was together in the same place, and were no doubt taking care of each other to an extent. If they were separated to many far corners of this island...

No chance. None at all.

Here came Usopp's specialty. When given an opportunity to remain in safety with little to no concern about his friends, he would always choose to do so. But if his friends were actively in danger, and there was even the slightest chance he could do something about it...

Even a coward can become dangerous when cornered, to modify the old idiom. Guilt had been building in him for days anyway, since he was free and all his companions besides Chopper, so far as he knew, were not.

"Chopper! Quick, they've go them outside!"

"Huh? Yeah!" The reindeer picked up on his thoughts immediately, and both of them made tracks for their route back to the ground. With their speed, it took less than ten minutes of them to reach the vicinity of the fortress, which found them staring at the prisoner movement from only about a hundred yards away.

"We have to do something now! R-right?" Chopper peeked at the scene in his usual backwards manner, forcing Usopp to grab him by the scruff of the neck and drag him back behind cover.

"Y-yeah! We need to save them! It's all up to us, after all!" Dropping the reindeer, Usopp tensed and prepared himself, pulling out his slingshot and digging in his pouch for the most appropriate type of ammo. He decided that one of his Smoke Stars would best do the trick – providing distraction and cover all at once. Taking a deep, shaky breath, he stepped out from his chosen cover, slingshot at the ready.

"Eat this! Smoke Star!" He launched a set of his ammunition at the guards surrounding the prisoners, the pellets striking with his traditional accuracy. Three men were knocked back by direct hits, while the others set about coughing and such due to the explosion of smoke.

Since there was no longer any backing out, Usopp bolted forward, reloading and firing as quickly as he was able. Pandemonium erupted due to the surprise attack, the few men that had so far escaped the assault retreating either towards the prisoners or back toward the fortress to recruit backup. There was no way Usopp had the courage to go up against the whole of the forces stationed there, so he knew that running would be his best and only option. He just had to makes sure that he wasn't the only one fleeing the scene...

He made it in range faster than he expected, his own adrenaline making time seem to slow. Flinging himself into the midst of the group of guards and prisoners, he grabbed the closest bound and hooded person by the arm and dragged him aside.

_Weird, I didn't think there was anyone this heavy in our crew... these clothes too, I didn't notice them from back there, but..._ Usopp couldn't bother spending too much time contemplating this, since the cloud of smoke he had created was quickly dissipating. He pulled out one of the _shuriken_ he kept in his bag and put it to use shredding the bonds of the person he had rescued. He found them heavily bound by rope, but an additional security was in place in the form of some really strange, heavy looking handcuffs.

_There's no way I can deal wit those right now, I'd better just make them ready to run._ With that thought in mind, and hearing the sounds of Chopper bringing a well timed distraction in his Arm Point form, Usopp switched tactics to simply removing the person's hood so that they would be able to see to flee.

As the covering was removed, Usopp realized his fundamental, inescapable mistake. "You – you're..."

An infuriated white haired Marine Captain glared up at the young pirate. "What the hell are you waiting for? Are you going to let these assholes catch you too, pirate?"

-----------------

End Ch. 13

**Ending Note**: I determined to get something done, and I did. Yay.


	14. I'm Sorry! Apologies & Understanding

**A/N**: Another chapter for you, Enjoy. It's winter break, so I actually have a modicum of time free for my various hobbies (including this fic). Lots of fun descriptions and conversations, as far as I'm concerned as writer, in here. Blame Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth for it all.

**Chapter 14**:

Zoro didn't stop running until the sounds of chaos had faded completely, and the scent of smoke only came from what lingered on his and Tashigi's clothing. He trotted into the cover of a cluttered alley, the sound of water and the scent of salt informing him that he had apparently found his way to the dockside area.

Tashigi had stopped fighting him a while ago, which concerned him much more than any dire threats of harm to his person. Spotting a solid looking packing crate shoved against the side of a nearby building, he moved toward it purposefully. Shifting her weight carefully, he settled Tashigi down on the rough sawed wood, maintaining his grip on her shoulders.

She seemed to awake with the the abrupt change in position, drawing in a gasping breath and shaking herself a little. Zoro leaned forward, trying to get a closer look, inadvertently bringing himself nose to nose with Tashigi as he inspected her closely. Her glazed eyes focused slowly on his face, leading her to jerk backwards at his proximity, the reaction somewhat belated.

"Wh-what are you doing?"

"You look like crap. What the hell, you didn't let those morons back there hurt you, did you?"

"No!" She paused to cough painfully for a moment, "They cornered us inside, and I ended up inhaling a lot of smoke before I could get out, that's all!"

"Liar." Zoro sighed and dropped down into a crouch at her feet. "Well, I guess we need a place to go to ground for a few days now. Until you're up to dealing with all this again."

"Don't be ridiculous. I'll be fine in a few minutes, I just need to catch my breath."

"Well, whatever you say then." Zoro decided to concede the argument, since she really couldn't do anything about it in the state she appeared to be in. "At least we left them pretty far behind us. Did you manage to get any clues out of that lady last night about where we're headed next? We should at least plan something."

"Uhm, well, a few." The female swordsman was starting to sway where she sat, so Zoro absently reached up to steady her with one hand.

"Never mind. We'll talk about it later." Zoro turned to look over is shoulder, peering into the gloom behind him. "For now, just stay put."

Apparently she wasn't so out of it that she wouldn't notice his abrupt tensing and battle aura. "Wait, you -!"

"Stay!" Zoro's voice was harsh enough to set her back long enough for him to turn, launching himself toward the presence he had detected. The sounds of frantic scrabbling erupted as the spy attempted to escape, too late. Throwing himself bodily over another stack of abandoned crates and other chunks of wood, Zoro tackled the man before he made it five feet.

"Hah, before you can report back..." He trailed off as the flattened person became familiar, despite the fact that he was face planted into the stone of the street. "Wait a minute. You're -"

"Ah, heh. I caught up to you." The young man that had escorted Zoro to the scene of the fire, after various attempts to get him to abandon Tashigi and run away. The memory of that scene caused the pirate to narrow his eyes, though he did have to admit that he had abandoned the man in the middle of a fight. Well, not so much abandoned as left to his own, apparently capable, devices. That was why he was willing to back off a bit, dragging the other man to his feet by the collar of his shirt and pointedly slamming him back against the building wall.

"Following us again? Better give me a good excuse to let you off this time."

"Ah, come on! I'm just here to offer some assistance."

"Assistance?" Zoro was puzzled by the suggestion.

"Yeah, I guess you're more capable than we thought. Your friend is hurt, right? We have some people that can look at her, at any rate."

Zoro was disinclined to go along with this suggestion right off the bat, but he had to admit that Tashigi needed some help that he wasn't capable of providing at the moment. He'd always just _survived_ his injuries, and lately he and the rest of the crew had gotten quite used to regular treatment by Chopper. At least he'd gotten a little better at recognizing the sorts of things that would require a visit to a doctor, even if he never intended to purposefully put himself under one's care.

"..." He paused to look back at Tashigi, who had disobeyed his order and risen to her feet. Leaning heavily against the wall of a nearby building, she was determinedly making her way toward Zoro and his prisoner. "I guess you have a point. Keep in mind, though, that there's nothing wrong with _me_."

"Heh, naturally." This was said with a bit of nervousness, just as obvious as the swordsman's not-so-veiled threat had been.

Zoro warily stepped back, glancing around for any other threats and taking the opportunity to move over to Tashigi's side. Grabbing her arm, he steadied her while moving into a better defensive position. It was also a good spot for catching her should she decide to collapse, as she appeared quite likely to do.

The young man stepped away from the wall, coughing quietly as he straightened his shirt collar, eying Zoro and his companion for a moment before nodding to himself and turning around.

"Come. It's this way."

---------------------------

Tashigi gradually became aware of a faint sensation of warmth. She then had a moment of panic as the memories of smoke and fire came to the forefront of her mind. The fear quickly faded as she analyzed the sensation though, the more rational parts of her mind reasserting themselves. This feeling was not unpleasant – more of an overlying tingle, like being immersed in sun-warmed water. As she contemplated it, she slowly came to detect a certain amount of directionality to the feeling, the sense of outspreading ripples that washed over her. Fascinated by this, she focused more on the warmth than any of her other senses as consciousness returned to her in bits and pieces.

_What is it?_

Her investigation was brought to an abrupt end as she became alert enough for another thing to catch up to her. Pain.

_Ah, right. I was injured. The fire..._ She'd been running on adrenaline during her fight and the period after, knowing that any injuries that had her so incapacitated that she was struggling to stand would hurt like hell after a bit. She hadn't thought it would be _this_ much though. Burns really were the worst kind of injury to have. Specifically, spots on her lower legs and forearms, on bad patch on her shoulder, and her neck. Her neck was the worst, a ring of fire sending shocks through her body as the muscles moved involuntarily.

_Just swallowing is going to hurt at this rate. Never mind moving._ Nevertheless, Tashigi resigned herself, having fairly well identified all the parts that were going to cause her pain at the moment. She opened her eyes.

The ceiling over head was made of smooth boards. Slowly turning her head to one side to get a more interesting view, she noted that her wounds had at least been tended to, cleaned and bound. She winced slightly, but was already acclimating herself to the pain. She couldn't avoid it, so it was best just to deal with it.

She blinked a couple of times to fully clear her vision, and was greeted wit ha sight that was becoming altogether far too common. Roronoa was slouched against the wall of the room she found herself in, his swords – and hers – arrayed on the floor next to his right hand. He was aware of her return to consciousness, a his eyes met hers calmly.

"Finally up?" He spoke quietly, not bothering to move from his apparently comfortable spot on the floor.

There was no challenge in the question, simply some polite interest as far as she could tell. Imagine that, Roronoa being something other than smartass or surly. Perhaps her wounds were actually fatal?

"Ah - " She cleared her throat, painfully it must be added, before her voice returned to her. "Where is this?"

"Some locals with a sense of vigilante justice volunteered their facilities and their services." He shifted himself slightly, lifting his chin to give the illusion of looking down at her. "How's your throat?"

"Hurts." She answered simply, lifting one eyebrow at her companion for a bit more explanation.

He reached down by his side and casually lifted a circular piece of metal that she hadn't noted before, dangling it lazily off one finger. She stared at it, puzzled for a moment, before it became familiar. It was, in fact, one of those blasted metal collars that she, Roronoa and every other prisoner in the island fortress had been so charitably equipped with. This one had apparently been cut open for removal, and the green haired swordsman gave a further bit of revelation by pulling down the collar of his dark turtleneck to reveal his own unadorned throat.

"This one's mine." He stated simply. "I'd almost forgotten we still had these damned things on, but it was pretty unfortunate for you, being in the heat of that building."

She nodded slightly. "Burned me, huh?"

"Hot metal will do that, though how you managed to let yourself to get it into a situation where it would become that warm..." He trailed off. "Well, whatever. The doctor was all worked up about it, and had yours removed right away. I got mine off only a little while ago, since I'm not as noticeable as you."

She snorted in disbelief – Roronoa being unnoticeable was beyond her range of conception – but quickly regretted it, as the pain it caused was rather excruciating. She felt the muscles of her throat contracting, stealing her breath. _Ah, so this is one reason I was having trouble getting air back then. _

Lack of oxygen was also an excellent reason for her loss of consciousness that had landed her in this strange place without her knowledge. She heard a scuffling noise as Roronoa bolted to his feet. "Oi, should I call the doc back in here? You look -"

She waved him off, literally using one hand to ward off the concern as she knew she wouldn't be able to speak for a few moments. After a few more seconds her breathing came easier and both she and Roronoa visibly relaxed.

Taking a few more deep breaths, Tashigi determined to take the next step and hoisted herself up onto one elbow. Roronoa was wise enough not to say anything, though his expression bespoke disapproval. Sighing in something like resignation, he moved over to her bedside and grasped her free arm, using a bit of his strength to help her into a sitting position. His hand lingered on her elbow for a bit, until she lifted her gaze to glare at him. Then he proceeded to jerk back as if _he_ had just been burned.

Glancing down at the floor, he backed up a couple of steps – notably still within range to act if her injuries caught up with her – muttering under his breath. "The doc'll be pissed."

Tashigi gingerly moved to swing her legs out of the bed. She was still mostly clothed luckily, though her trousers and sweater had seen better days. "I have far too many things to deal with to be worried about the wrath of a doctor I don't even know."

"Ah, how ungrateful." An amused voice sounded from the doorway of the room, revealing a middle aged gentleman in worn but clean clothing. "But I guess I'd be used to it by now." He stepped into the room and moved to her bedside, giving her a critical head to toe inspection in a glance.

Stubbornly, she continued her motions to rise, dropping her bare feet to the rough wood floor and sliding forward to put some weight on her legs. She paused as she carefully noted that the muscles felt too weak to support her at the moment, and opted to desist from her ambition for a few minutes. After all, it made no sense to wound herself and her pride further by trying to stand before she was ready and collapsing ungracefully to the hard floor.

Roronoa was still hovering rather annoyingly, just out of easy reach for the young Marine invalid. She could really use to drive him out of the room for a few minutes at least, but her voice certainly wasn't up to the task and she couldn't do it physically, so she resigned herself to his presence for the moment.

"I have to say, I didn't think you'd be awake and moving so soon. Youth is a wonderful thing, eh?" The doctor stepped forward briskly, grasping Tashigi's chin with the fingers of one hand and gently lifting her head, turning it equally gently from side to side. "This hurts?"

"Only a bit." She answered fairly truthfully. The pain was minor compared to what she had experienced so recently.

"Hmm." He appeared to be watching her expression, particularly her eyes, very seriously. He released her and stepped back. "Well, as I said, you're young and the wounds are fairly superficial. There may be some scarring, but there's nothing to be done for that." His tone was apologetic, but Tashigi nodded stoically. She hadn't become a soldier with expectations of maintaining an unmarred physique for the rest of her life, after all. Glancing up at Roronoa for a moment – why, she didn't care to guess – the doctor continued.

"Take things only as you feel able. You're not one of my regulars," he quirked an eyebrow at that, "so you know your limits better than I do, most likely. Don't push yourself too far would be my advice, but you seem to be a levelheaded young woman."

The male swordsman made a soft noise at that statement, but his expression when she turned her narrowed eyes on him didn't betray what he'd meant by it. Instead the doctor gave her a few instructions on caring for her wounds and the rest of herself, and then made a quick but graceful exit.

Silence reigned for long moments, both of the young pair staring blankly at the door where the older man had disappeared for no real reason other than that it was better than contemplating each other. Finally, Roronoa broke the stillness by sighing irately, turning on his heel and retreating back to his chosen spot by the wall. He didn't bother sitting, just leaning against the worn, unpainted boards with his arms crossed over his chest. Tashigi glanced after him, then recalled her earlier goal and returned to her aim of rising to her feet.

After a few stalled attempts, she managed it, cautiously and keeping one hand firmly planted on the thin mattress of the cot she had occupied. When she felt her legs capable of a little more work she stepped away from the furniture, pointedly ignoring the presence of the pirate in one corner of her room.

For his part, Roronoa simply watched silently. And then he followed equally silently, barring the slight noise as he bent to retrieve the swords, as she moved out into the hallway to explore her new surroundings. Really, she just wanted a bit of escape. She knew full well it must have been Roronoa that had dragged her unconscious and bloody form to this place, somehow.

She also knew that she really needed to thank him, or show some sort of appreciation at least, but had no idea how to go about it. Not that she had trouble saying her thanks normally, but this was _Roronoa Zoro_. She had no idea how to be more than barely civil to the man, damn it.

She made it to a broad window, the building feature naturally drawing her attention as she attempted to determine her new location. She reached the sill and peered out, analyzing the view. Water, mostly. It looked like they were still in town – a town anyway – and perhaps in a dockside warehouse. On one of the upper floors apparently as well. She wrinkled her nose slightly at the revelation. This place had both its good and bad points strategically. The water provided a good means of escape to be sure, but only if you had transportation, and furthermore transportation that was faster than anything the enemy sent after you. Other than that, you essentially had cut off your back as a means of escape. Being on the second floor or higher limited avenues of flight as well, and she paused to consider why Roronoa had agreed to it, with an injured person no less. Surely he wasn't so incompetent not to realize these factors.

Perhaps more of his arrogance shining through? That unerring confidence to see him through any fight, no matter how unfortunate the circumstances. Well, his luck might be that good, but it was quite plain that hers was not, being injured so badly in such a pathetic way.

And that brought her mind circularly back to the point that was digging at her consciousness very annoyingly. Roronoa was still following her like a ghost, now leaning against the far edge of the windowsill, apparently attempting to figure out what she found so irritating about he view outside.

Sighing deeply, ignoring the pain it caused in her still tense throat, she leaned gingerly against the frame of the window and took a page from Roronoa's book, crossing her arms over her chest and giving the man a dark stare. He turned toward her and returned the look.

"What?" His rough tone made her grit her teeth a bit, attempting to force the words out.

"Th-thank you." She tried her best to look and sound completely sincere as she said it. Not that she wasn't, but...

"Ehn?" He blinked at her disbelievingly. "What?"

"What, you want to make me say it again?" She snapped irritably. What the hell was the man's problem? He certainly wasn't deaf.

"No, don't stress yourself." He replied acidly, "I'm just not sure why you're thanking me." At her incredulous stare he stepped closer and elaborated. "Not for dragging your sorry ass down here to get patched up, right?"

"What else?" She growled irately. Was he rubbing it in her face now?

"Why?" Now this was interesting, he sounded genuinely confused. "It's not like I can abandon you in some alley somewhere. You're my partner, you needed help, so I got it. That's what you're supposed to do, it's natural right?"

"What's this? Those kind of sentiments from _you-"_

"Loyalty?" He asked bluntly. His glare was coming at her full force now. "Damn, how can you still be so pig headed?!"

"What the hell does that mean?!" She resisted the temptation to cough or gag as the rising volume she found in her voice caused the increasingly familiar constriction in her throat.

"How can you, after all we've been through these past few weeks, still think I'm completely incapable of any kind of unselfish emotion or act?" He stepped even closer, now nose to nose with her, his eyes snapping with fire, "Do really, honestly, think I'm that shallow, that inhuman, after all this? After everything?"

If she hadn't been physically incapable of speaking already, she would have been shocked into silence. She sucked in one painful breath after another for a few tense moments. In the end, her intentions had been to honestly thank him. To let him know that she was, in fact, grateful for his care and concern. How did it end up as yet another shallow, pointless argument?

Worse, many of their most recent arguments had been irritating at the time, but had ended up with him or her walking away, cooling off quickly and bringing out thoughtful insight after a few minutes. She would even swear that he'd been enjoying the last few, riling her up for his own amusement perhaps.

This was different. He was angry, perhaps even... hurt by her words. It was hard to believe that mere words could cause pain to such a man, but her lack of faith seemed to have that effect. She was stunned. She was speechless.

She was gratefully distracted by a commotion from somewhere below.

The sounds of raised voices and clattering erupted, echoing strangely through the building. A warehouse indeed, it seemed. She didn't move until Roronoa did, dropping his eyes and stepping back, turning toward a nearby stairwell. Tashigi remained still, watching him move away, her fingers gripping the hard wood of the windowsill painfully.

The green haired man slipped over to the railing of the stairs, cautiously peering downward and very pointedly ignoring the presence of the only other person present in his vicinity. She stood back, not even bothering to follow him over to his vantage point. After all, she was less than useless in her current state for anything other than insulting the man who had so recently saved her life. Guilt was an unwelcome intruder in her conscience.

He finally deigned to glance back at her, but only with an expression that told her silently to stay put and only for a moment. Without another word he disappeared down the stairs, leaving her alone.

--------------------

The sounds lessened after a while, without Roronoa reappearing. Eventually, after standing motionless for she had no idea how long, Tashigi decided that there was nothing served by remaining in the open. She retreated to the room where she had awakened, closing the thin door behind her as quietly as possible. She listened for any new noises, indications of enemies. Nothing but the faint sounds associated with the oceanside graced her strained ears.

Her wounds began to burn again, the pain slowly increasing as she stood. Finally she sunk down to the floor next to the door. Waiting.

Her injuries, among other things, caught up with her as time passed and nothing changed. Her chin dropped to her knees and her eyes closed. She wouldn't let herself sleep, but she dozed lightly to take the edge off her exhaustion.

She jerked back to full wakefulness at the sound of footsteps. They approached, stopped outside her door, and then entered. She wasn't frightened by the sound or the entrance, because she knew who it was instinctively.

He sighed in irritation, his boots in her vision for a few long moments before he dropped into a crouch in front of her. Roronoa glared at her, obviously still enraged but controlling himself admirably.

"You should know, all that commotion downstairs would interest you. These bunch of amateurs we've fallen in with have some good connections for information, and they got word of a jailbreak almost as ambitious as ours."

He paused for a moment. "Your boss escaped. A couple other Marines got out with him. You should be happy, you have some trustworthy comrades to seek out and join up with." He shifted, then rose to apparently leave.

"I'm sorry." The words left her before she was aware of it. She meant it, but she nearly bit her tongue nonetheless.

"Hn." The sound was noncommittal. A long pause followed, and then, "Again?"

She lifted her head to look him in the eyes once more. "What now?"

"Apologizing? To me?" The bastard was smiling. Grinning, dammit!

Irritated, she just had to ask, "Why not?"

"Because it's not like you. Where's that confidence, that assertiveness? You're in the right, you are Justice, aren't you? Why apologize to a pirate?"

"I'm not!"

"Sure you are. Surely a few good deeds don't erase a lifetime of criminality?" His amusement was increasing, but she was deadly serious.

"No. I'm apologizing to my partner, to the person who saved my life more than once." She tilted her head to one side. "I meant it when I thanked you earlier too."

"I know." He rocked back on his heels, one hand dropping to his side. She didn't break eye contact, but she heard a few soft sounds culminating in a rattle and a clank on the floor beside her left hand. "Rest up. If we're gonna hunt down your Captain, you need to be in good shape."

"Naturally." With that, he gave her one last smirk, then rose and actually did leave. She smiled herself, shaking her head slightly. What a change in atmosphere in such a short while. She glanced down at the floor to inspect his gift.

Her sword. The borrowed one she'd carried for the last few days, carefully arranged next to her hand, the _sageo_ cord wrapped not intricately but neatly despite apparently being done one handed and too quickly to notice.

"Strange man."

**Ending Note**: There are a few movies I like to watch (repeatedly) while I write this fic. _Kill Bill_ is a good one. _Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman_ (Tashigi fodder) and _Pirates of the Caribbean_ (uh, yeah) are excellent too. But you know what? When it comes down to it, the best one for watching while writing relationship development for Zoro and Tashigi is _Pride and Prejudice_. What on earth could be more appropriate? Though I do rather think the roles are reversed – or perhaps a little fuzzy....

Imagine this if you will – Zoro, walking dramatically out of the mist, wearing a long coat... yeah, it makes me laugh too.


End file.
